Apr 22nd, 2008
Tips offered for avoiding vocal problems
HOUSTON, April 22 (UPI) — “American Idol” season six winner Jordin Sparks has been sidelined by a vocal chord injury, but anyone can got a voice problem, U.S. experts say.
Experts in the audiology speech pathology department at The Methodist Hospital in Houston say most voice disorders are related to trauma to the vocal folds from excessive or intense voice use and vocal nodules. Vocal nodules, polyps and cysts are common use-related problems that occur in adults — especially for those who use their voice a lot such as lawyers and teachers.
In addition, irritants, such as acid reflux and environmental allergies, also account for many throat and voice complaints and treating reflux or allergies can go a long way in preserving the voice.
To keep the throat in good working order, use a normal voice, avoid throat clearing and don’t whisper.
“Whispering is hard on the voice — as is talking very loudly,” the experts at The Methodist Hospital in Houston says in a statement. “Also, if you feel strain or tension in your throat, neck or shoulders, it means you’re talking too loudly.”
Smoking or drinking alcohol can also irritate the vocal cords.
Tags: 22, american, april, idol
11 Responses to “Tips offered for avoiding vocal problems”
I was just trying to point out that there could be a rational reason to buy an expensive-ish car. I was not really trying to say he was a delivery driver I have no idea. Maybe he planned on moving to a new career that required a specific image.
Hey, I live in NYC, and let me tell you: we are inundated with breakfast carts, where you can get a nice big coffee and a nice pastry/bagel/whatever for $2. Hell, they’re probably using Starbucks prices, but you’ve got a problem if you get all your coffee from venti lattes. I mean, at Starbucks, a venti regular coffee usually costs right around $2 (and the beans are burnt to all hell, but that’s another story. It can be good from time to time). But I guess it comes down to spending money even relatively smartly, and maybe people are really, really bad at that. I don’t know.
Funny thing is our economy desperately depends on consumer spending to prop it up (consumer spending accounts for 2/3 of GDP). If everyone followed these tips, consumer spending/debt would drop and we’d probably tip into recession. Good tips though.
Have rich parents so that you can go to college without getting yourself into debt. It worked for me, but unfortunately, people can’t choose their parents.
They’re not spending $15 a day for a coffee and pastry, they’re spending $15 a day on takeaway lunches. That’s pretty high for a lunch, but I can easily spend $15-20 a day on food by eating out for both lunch and dinner. I have too many hobbies to have time for cooking on most days.
Think about it though, say it’s $7.50 for lunch (reasonable) and then $3.50 for breakfast at Dunkin. Then another $2.00 for a coffee on the way home. That’s $13. Add in a soda at the vending machine or a bottled water (yes, people buy this) and you’re up to $15. If you go out for a drink after work, you’ll push past $20 easily.
If everything else stays as it is, maybe. But who says the crappy state of the art should stay this way??
I always find it shocking that people think things like this are insightful.On a related note, I recently joined Wesabe to see if it’s any good. The forums were so full of people with terrible financial advice (”Flip your first condo right now!”) that I soon realized the “wisdom of the crowd” doesn’t seem to apply to money in the USA in 2007.Maybe a good old-fashioned depression will teach some people how to properly relate to money.
Well, look… individually, the whole credit card thing might work for you, but societally, it’s been a disaster.
While a lot of people here say that this article is common sense, it seems to me that it’s a lot harder to actually follow. I used to use debit cards every day, and never really realized how much money I spent on daily things like coffee and lunch. When I left the US, I moved to a country which is more cash based. I became more shockingly aware of the money that I was spending and io t became a lot easier tmanage that spending. It also helps when you see bills that are 9000 yen and it seems like a hell of a lot of money.