• Question: why do you loose your voice?

    Asked by courtneysaaur to David, Helen, Ian, rhysphillips, Sarah on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Helen Fletcher

      Helen Fletcher answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Good question, I guess bacteria and viruses must love attacking vocal cord cells!

    • Photo: Rhys Phillips

      Rhys Phillips answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      I think this can happen for two main reasons – one is over use of the vocal chords (lots of shouting) can temporarily damage them (this why people sometimes have no voice after a night out in town when they’ve had to shout over the loud music in a club). The other reason would be as Helen has suggested – some sort of infection, usually laryngitis I think.

    • Photo: Ian van der Linde

      Ian van der Linde answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      You might get an infection in your larynx, or it might just get inflamed through over use (perhaps if you were a professional singer). It can be quite painful when we lose our voice – this is to discourage us from talking to give it a chance to heal!

    • Photo: David Corne

      David Corne answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      See here – the vocal fold (also called vocal cord) acts like a guitar string. If you over use it, or if it gets infected, it basically goes loose and floppy and doesn’t twang properly anymore. Try wrapping a guitar string in sellotape (infection) and see how it sounds.

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