Keeping your voice clear and fresh.

Maintaining a healthy clear sounding voice is all about hydration. Your vocal cords or ‘folds’ are naturally covered with a thin layer of mucus that protects them and allows them to vibrate naturally and efficiently. When you are dehydrated, the mucus thickens and dries resulting in your cords not being able to vibrate as easily. Your voice will sound croaky or cloudy and you might feel that you have less control over your voice.

Lots of people mistakenly believe that by drinking water just prior to speaking or during a speech can lubricate the voice or cords. However, this is not true because when we drink liquids they go down the oesophagus and our vocal cords are located ‘on’ the wind pipe, so the water you drink won’t touch the vocal cords.

It is correct to drink lots of water to hydrate the vocal cords – but at least two hours before you are going to speak. It takes at least 2 hours for your body to absorb water that will hydrate your throat. So, please do drink plenty of water, but be aware that you need to ‘top up’ with water a couple of hours before a presentation or public speaking engagement.

At this time of year, our vocal cords can become more dehydrated due to central heating. It is normally recommended to drink at least 2 litres of liquid a day to keep our whole bodies hydrated – more if you have a physical or active lifestyle. If you drink coffee or tea, remember to drink more water because caffeinated drinks also dry out the voice. When we are speaking, we produce energy and use fluids. This is why it is important to maintain a hydrated body, thus producing a clear voice.

Copyright 2007 Susan Heaton Wright, Executive Voice ©