Hoarseness: When The Voice Fails

When the cold hits your voice, we often don’t take it seriously – but hoarseness can have long lasting consequences. But how does it develop in the first place and what should be done if the voice suddenly sounds like a grater?

Tina Turner has it and so does actress Jessica Schwarz: a rough, somewhat hoarse voice that sounds beautifully sexy. Which is why some women don’t mind at all when their voice is occupied by a cold and sounds like a grater. After all, the typical symptoms of a cold like a runny nose are usually more unpleasant than hoarseness anyway.

“People who feel miserable, have coughs and headaches, take the infection much more seriously than if only their voice scratches” says Dr. Michael Deeg of the German Society for ENT Medicine. “Many people have the feeling: it’s not that bad.” A mistake, because hoarseness is a symptom that must be taken seriously.

What are the causes of hoarseness?

Viruses and bacteria very often attack the vocal chords, larynx and windpipe when you have a cold. It’s not hard to imagine: they are directly connected to the mouth and nose via the throat. Viruses and bacteria are therefore the most common cause of hoarseness.

What to do about hoarseness?

So if your voice starts to scratch when you have a cold or you get hoarseness directly, you should do something good for it as soon as possible. Above all this means:

Drink a lot

This keeps the throat moist. However, we should avoid drinks with a high tannic acid content (coffee, black and green tea) and sour fruit juices as far as possible. Water, herbal teas and juice spritzers are better for hoarseness.

Inhalation

For inhaling and gargling it is best to use sage tea or saltwater. Camomile, on the other hand, must be dosed carefully, otherwise it dries out the mucous membranes.

Potato wrap

For acute sore throat and hoarseness, a potato wrap can also help (boil three to four potatoes, mash them and wrap them around the neck in a cloth for 30 minutes).

Go easy on the voice

Overuse of the voice should be avoided. However, whispering is not an alternative, because it puts even more strain on the vocal chords. It is better to speak softly when you are hoarse and avoid environments where the volume is raised involuntarily.

If the cawing voice remains

One should not carry the voice problems forward under any circumstances, because whoever ignores the infected vocal chords will remain sick longer, even with a simple cold. In the worst case, thickening of the vocal cords can lead to vocal fold nodules – the healing of the hoarseness can then take months. And once the immune system is weakened because of an attacked voice, it is easier to catch a new cold. If the hoarseness lasts longer than a week or two, an examination by an ear, nose and throat doctor is advisable.

What does the doctor do for hoarseness?

Using a mini-mirror, the doctor looks down the throat and examines the larynx and vocal chords. Are they reddened? Swollen? Is the mucous membrane thickened? Or is cold secretion on the vocal cords, making the voice sound hoarse and fragile? If a virus caused the cold, that secretion is bright and clear. In which case, antibiotics won’t help. A bacterial infection, however, which can be recognised by the thick and discoloured mucus, can be successfully cured with antibiotics.

Courses against hoarseness

If you often have problems with your voice, you can do something lastingly to improve your voice and breathing technique: in courses (e.g. according to the method of Ilse Middendorf, e.g. as a one-day seminar at elementary schools) or through individual exercises with a speech therapist (also prescribed by a doctor under certain circumstances).

Even better: Prevention

The heating warmth makes the air in the apartment extremely dry in winter. To be healthy and resistant, however, the mucous membranes in the nose and throat must be moist. At home and in the office, the humidity should therefore not be below 55 percent. This can be checked with a special measuring device, which can be purchased for about 10 euros in any electrical store.

A healthier, more humid room climate is achieved by large bowls of water, evaporators or wet cloths on the radiators and green plants. And outside? When it gets really cold: Breathe through your mouth and nose to avoid hoarseness. Then the mucous membranes dry out less and the icy air is warmed up before it hits our sensitive vocal folds. These vocal folds shape our sounds as we breathe and are therefore essential for speaking.

Help, laryngitis!

The larynx is essentially involved in the formation of sounds. In laryngeal inflammation (which can also have a chronic form), the mucous membrane of the larynx is inflamed, which can lead to coughing, sore throat and hoarseness. It usually develops as a result of virus-induced inflammation of the airways, but there are also more specific causes, such as smoking or reflux-related laryngitis, in which the acidic stomach contents flow back into the oesophagus and throat. The doctor can detect laryngitis by means of a laryngoscopy. A laryngitis usually heals on its own after a few days.