Healthy voice as important as healthy life

World Voice Day is observed every year on  April 16 with a major concern to generate awareness among the public regarding the importance of voice, the different types of voice disorders, and how to care for the voice.

Voice is a wonderful tool that has numerous functions. It can calm someone and can even provoke or scare them. Many a times it can be really enchanting to listen someone speak or sing. In short, voice can influence a person in positive or even negative manner.

Power supply for voice

Our lungs produces the power supply for the voice. The airflow from the lungs makes the vocal folds (or vocal chords) in the larynx (or voice box) vibrate to make the basic sound of the voice; this process is called phonation.

Because that sound made by the vocal folds is too weak to be heard, that basic sound is then modified into the sound we recognise as the human voice as it travels up from the larynx through the throat, mouth and nose; this transformation is known as resonance.

Production of a natural, effective voice depends on how well we balance or coordinate these three fundamental components of breathing, phonation and resonance.

Drastic change

Now a days we are noticing a drastic change in people’s perspective towards maintaining health and fitness, where we often find people eagerly putting their jogging shoes and rush to a multigym or the park.

It is undoubtedly a good step towards improvising our quality of life, but at the same time, are we paying enough attention to maintain one of the wonderful systems that we have been gifted with which we call the voice mechanism?

Whether for professional reasons or for carying out daily activities, we all depend upon our voices in some or the other manner and often do not realise the importance of maintaining a healthy regime to keep our voice in proper working state, and may consistently be pushing it towards possible damage that may become unrepairable in a few instances.

So, does it suggest that one should completely stop talking or using his/her voice?
It is practically impossible to do so, rather, we can choose to incorporate a few precautionary measures in our daily living that can enormously contribute towards maintaining a healthy voice.
             
 (The author is a lecturer at JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing)