What to do when you're sick

Friday, January 6, 2023 by Alix Evans | vocal health

It's flu season, there's a new variant of COVID out there, and I have a nasty sinus infection that just doesn't want to leave!  So it seems like a good time to talk about what a singer can do when they get sick.

When you develop some kind of upper-respiratory ickiness, you have three jobs:

1. Keep it out of your throat
2. Keep it out of your chest
3. Get over it as quickly as possible

Keep it out of your throat
It surprises a lot of singers to learn that you can sing perfectly well with clogged sinuses!  The sinuses don't actually play much of a role in resonance, so while you'll sound different to yourself with all of that snot in your head, you'll still sound ok to people who live outside of your head.

Singing with a sore throat is a different matter!  Gunk and inflammation in the throat will cause you to sound different, and can also lead to slower recovery and even vocal injury.  So as soon as you realize you've got gunk in your face, here are some things to do to keep it out of your throat:

• Medicate.  A good decongestant will reduce the amount of gunk in your face, and make it much less likely to travel down into your throat.  I like Dayquil/Nyquil for this.
• Don't swallow your snot.  This is gross, but it needs to be said.  Horking your snot into your throat and swallowing it sends it directly to your throat, which is exactly what you don't want.  When you need to get the snot out of your air passages, it needs to exit in the other direction.  Blow your nose.  Lots.
• Warm steam.  The warmth and wetness of steam can help to loosen up some of the gunk in your face, making all that nose blowing a lot more productive!
• Neti pot.  I know, I know.  I'm not going to sit here and tell you "It's not as bad as you think!"  It is.  It's werid, and gross.  And it's the best thing for you when you have snot in your head.  I'm so so sorry.  I use my neti pot daily when I'm sick.  (When I'm on top of things, which I rarely am while sick, let's be real.)

Keep it out of your chest
Ok, so it's in your throat.  Sometimes, despite our best efforts, or all of a sudden overnight, the gunk gets into our throats.  But it's still not too late to avoid a hacking cough!  Here are some things to do to support your throat and keep the gunk out of your chest:

• Vocal rest.  Now is the time to take a break from singing, and even talking if you can, for all the reasons discussed above.
• Gargling salt water and baking soda.  Mix some salt and baking soda into a mug of water, microwave it until it's hot, but cool enough to drink, and gargle it (voicelessly).  This will help to dislodge any gunk that's hanging around in your throat.
• Tea.  My favorite for a sore throat is licorice root with lots of honey.  Make sure it's hot tea!
• Cold steam inhalation.  Get you something like this - a little personal steam inhaler, and spend a minute or two breathing from it throughout the day.  Usually when I do this early on, my sickness never develops into a cough.  And when I do have a cough, this helps it clear much more quickly!

You actually can sing with a cough.  It's not going to hurt you, the way singing with an inflamed throat will, but it might be really annoying.  The deep, abdominal breaths we need to take as singers might sometimes end in a coughing fit.

Get over it as quickly as possible
The faster you get rid of it, the less likely it is to creep down into your throat and chest.  And the less time you'll spend being miserable!

• Vitamin C.  I like Emergen-C, personally - the kind you stir into water.  Staying hydrated is an "always do" for singers, but it's especially important when you're sick.
• Medicate.  If you develop a cough and it really won't go away, you may have developed a bacterial infection.  Go get checked out, and see if you need antibiotics.  A good cough syrup can also really help - the grosser-tasing the better!  For the gunk in your face, though - most head colds are viral, and won't respond to antibiotics.  Still, a good decongestant like Dayquil/Nyquil will create an environment in your nose that's less hospitable to all the little germies who want to hang out in there.
• Neti pot.  Yup.  Sorry.