What’s Going On in Your Body When You Lose Your Voice?

 
Causes and remedies for vocal problems
Do you ever open your mouth to speak only to find that all you can do is croak or whisper? You may wonder whats happening in your body when you lose your voice.
You may experience hoarseness or lose your voice get laryngitis when the tissue covering your vocal cords becomes inflamed or swollen.
In another scenario with longterm heavy voice use calluslike growths known as nodules can form on the vocal cords and cause hoarseness.
When this happens your vocal cords dont vibrate as easily. This can show up as vocal fatigue vocal breaks or cause your voice to sound abnormal.

A symptom with many causes
Losing your voice is a symptom and not a condition itself says voice care specialist Claudio Milstein PhD.
If you have lost your voice you might find that your voice sounds rough raspy tired or feel like it takes a lot of effort to speak he says.
Most often one of these causes is to blame
An upper respiratory infection such as a cold cough bronchitis laryngitis or sinusitis Seasonal allergies that cause sinus drainage throat clearing and laryngitis A vocally demanding job that requires you to use your voice frequently over the course of several hours such as teaching or working in a call center Talking loudly yelling or cheering such as at a sporting event.
If you can trace your voice problems back to one of these sources then losing your voice once in awhile likely isnt serious Dr. Milstein says. If you rely on your voice in your job you may find that it happens more often for you and may be more of a problem if you rely on your voice daily.
But occasionally losing your voice might signal that precancerous or cancerous cells are forming. So you shouldnt ignore a problem that persists beyond two to four weeks.
How long should you wait it out?
Hoarseness is more likely to happen during an upper respiratory illness. Youre coughing clearing your throat a lot and your voice may start to sound croaky or weak. This can linger from a few days to a few weeks or even longer in some cases Dr. Milstein says.
How long should you wait to see if it will go away on its own? It depends.
If you rely on your voice for your job make plans to see your doctor if your voice isnt better in two weeks he says.
Risk factors