The Very Best Way to Clear Your Throat
This time of year, there are lots of people who find my blog using the search terms “frog in throat,” “how to stop a croak in your throat,” or my personal favorite, “frug throat.” (Note to self: check the site more carefully with Spellcheck!) “Frog in the throat” is a very polite way of describing the effect of thick mucus on your vocal folds, and the condition happens for a variety of reasons; you might have a cold, inflammation of the larynx, or, most commonly, you are dehydrated. In any case, you can’t talk when there is a small animal on your cords, and you need a quick remedy, so you loudly create a hurricane at the top of your trachea and get rid of that thing. Right? Wrong!
Here’s the best way to get back to unobstructed vocal use:
- Drink a large glass of room temperature water.
- Wait a few minutes.
- Gently, create a little compression at the vocal fold level and then clear your throat with a series of small releases of the air with very little or no voiced sound. It will feel like just the beginning of a throat clearing or a tiny cough. Be gentle. Those vocal folds are tiny and important!
For fewer frogs in general, don’t feed them dairy products, extremely spicy food, or any food that irritates your stomach.
For more on this topic please see my post “Who let the frogs out: 3 Quick tips for voice malfunctions.”
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