What causes hoarseness? How to protect your voice in daily life

A good voice can be said to be the first step for strangers to get to know us. In our lives, many friends are born with a good voice, which adds a lot of points to their interpersonal relationships. But do you know? In fact, everyone is born with a good voice, but due to neglect of care, the voice becomes hoarse. What situations will directly damage the throat? Let’s take a closer look at what causes hoarseness and how to protect your throat in daily life.

Why is my voice hoarse?

There are many reasons that can cause hoarseness in life, but many people do not pay much attention to it, so they often cannot recover until the situation becomes serious. The following are the main reasons for hoarseness:

1. Vocal cord mucosal lesions. The vocal cord mucosa has a certain viscoelasticity. When speaking, the laryngeal joints and muscles move to bring the free edges of the glottis on both sides close to each other, causing the vocal cords to vibrate due to the Bernoulli phenomenon. Due to different vibration frequencies and intensities, different tones and sounds are produced. When there are lesions on one or both sides of the vocal cord edge, whether due to inflammation or neoplasms, the vibration of the mucosal edge will be affected, resulting in a difference in vibration frequency on both sides, causing murmurs and manifesting as hoarseness.

2. Changes in vocal cord quality. The mass of the vocal cords on both sides should be consistent. When the weight is abnormal, such as submucosal edema and hemorrhage of the vocal cords, or unilateral atrophy of the vocal cords, the weight of the vocal cords will change, affecting the elasticity of the vocal cords, causing disordered and unsynchronized vibrations, murmurs, and hoarseness.

3. Incomplete closure of the glottis. Glottal closure is related to vocal cord tension and glottal subglottal pressure. During normal voice production, when the glottis is closed, there is a certain ratio between the glottal impedance and the glottal subglottal pressure. If the airflow pressure is too high or the glottis is closed too tightly, the clinical manifestations include spasmodic dysphonia. On the contrary, when the glottis is not completely closed, the airflow cannot be blocked well, and leaks out from the glottal fissure, causing turbulence, affecting the vibration cycle, producing noise, and causing hoarseness.

4. Vocal cord paralysis. Vocal cord movement is innervated by the external branch of the superior laryngeal nerve and the recurrent laryngeal nerve, especially the latter. Regardless of the cause of recurrent laryngeal nerve disease, it can affect glottal movement. This is mainly because the paralyzed vocal cord muscle tension is weakened, affecting the vibration frequency. The vibration of the vocal cords is significantly affected, resulting in hoarseness.

How to protect your throat in daily life

If we want to protect our throat in our lives, there are actually many ways and they are very simple. However, there are many issues that require our attention. The following methods can directly keep the goods clear:

1. Exercise regularly. Develop good exercise habits, improve your physical fitness through aerobic exercise, increase disease resistance, and avoid the occurrence of throat diseases.

2. Rinse your mouth frequently. Develop good mouthwash habits and gargle with light salt water every morning, after meals and before going to bed to keep the throat clean. Gargling with salt water can also reduce inflammation caused by pharyngitis and upper respiratory tract infections.

3. Get enough sleep. Do not linger in social places with polluted indoor air such as bars and nightclubs, put an end to bad habits such as staying up late, ensure adequate sleep, and avoid the occurrence of throat diseases.