Asthma and the desire to live by singing
WincklerMusic
STREAMING INTERMEDIATE Posts: 13
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Back in the beginning of 2018, I began with KTVA. I quickly got into oversinging but once I had a time of around 1 to 2 months doing KTVA where I experienced what it really has to offer. I did a gig where my voice was absolutely brilliant and was all fine afterwards. I sang high and low notes and felt so good while doing it.
Then I suddenly began having trouble again. I thought I had just been oversinging. No matter how easy I tried starting up again with KTVA I experienced problems. Since then my voice have NEVER been the same. Before KTVA I could sing all day without having no trouble at all. No I can hardly sing an easy song without having dry and irritated throat afterwards.
I'm now very sure what caused the problems. I began taking asthma inhalers in the beginning of 2018, and I'm almost certain that this kicked in while I was doing KTVA and caused my problems. I visited an ENT recently who is a singer. He said my vocal cords and throat looks normal and pointed out that it very well would be the asthma medications causing my problems.
While on a break from my university, I've been thinking and realised that singing is what I love to do the most on this planet. I am a really good singer I would say and I really want to give this a shot. I wouldn't mind educating or teaching singing/music if I shouldn't be able to make it by singing and playing alone. I really want to go back using KTVA for pursuing this dream.
I researched and thereby seen that many people suffer from asthma inhalers damaging their singing voice. My goal then, would be to somehow stop taking asthma inhalers and treat the asthma more naturally with meditation, diet and so on.
Does anybody have any experience with treating asthma without medications? Do you guys think I'm naive and stupid for having dreaming to cure this asthma and go for singing?
I hope you can help,
Rasmus Winckler
Then I suddenly began having trouble again. I thought I had just been oversinging. No matter how easy I tried starting up again with KTVA I experienced problems. Since then my voice have NEVER been the same. Before KTVA I could sing all day without having no trouble at all. No I can hardly sing an easy song without having dry and irritated throat afterwards.
I'm now very sure what caused the problems. I began taking asthma inhalers in the beginning of 2018, and I'm almost certain that this kicked in while I was doing KTVA and caused my problems. I visited an ENT recently who is a singer. He said my vocal cords and throat looks normal and pointed out that it very well would be the asthma medications causing my problems.
While on a break from my university, I've been thinking and realised that singing is what I love to do the most on this planet. I am a really good singer I would say and I really want to give this a shot. I wouldn't mind educating or teaching singing/music if I shouldn't be able to make it by singing and playing alone. I really want to go back using KTVA for pursuing this dream.
I researched and thereby seen that many people suffer from asthma inhalers damaging their singing voice. My goal then, would be to somehow stop taking asthma inhalers and treat the asthma more naturally with meditation, diet and so on.
Does anybody have any experience with treating asthma without medications? Do you guys think I'm naive and stupid for having dreaming to cure this asthma and go for singing?
I hope you can help,
Rasmus Winckler
Comments
I'm fairly new here myself and I too have had problems vocally in the past due to Multiple Sclerosis. I'm a great believer in doing whatever you possibly can in order to still follow your dreams. I'm sorry I can't offer you amazing advice Rasmus, but keep the faith and I'm sure you'll find a way round this.
- Supplement with Vitamin D. I don't know where you live, but especially if sun is not a common sight use some quality vitamin D supplement. If you live in a sunny place make sure you are exposed to a sun daily.
- Cutting of grains and all of the milk-based products. These can cause all kind of symptoms in people, and is fairly easy to see it they are the reason for you. Stay away from them for 3 weeks or so, and you should notice the difference in that time.
- Look for ways to lower you inflammation. Eat lot of vegetables, and don't over consume any sugary products. Eat real home-made food and cut down on low quality food products.
I am Marco. I am a medical doctor and started singing myself 11 months ago.
It is very good that you had a check at an ENT. So, we know that from a medical perspective everything with your larynx is fine.
When it comes to asthma we have to know that we differentiate between allergic asthma and non-allergic asthma. And @DogMeat is right. Reflux caused by incompatible foods CAN be a cause for non-allergic asthma. And this is not uncommon.
To give you more detailed information I need to know a few things more:
- Who has diagnosed the asthma?
- Has a spirometry (functional lung test) been done? If yes, was the VC (vital capacity) and FEV1 (forced exhalation volume in 1 second) abnormal?
- Has an allergy test been performed?
- What are the drugs you used for the treatment?
- Do you sometimes have heartburn?
Doc
@DogMeat : I have't consumed milk products for around 2 years. I eat quite healthy with loads of fruits and vegetables and I actually already supplement with Vitamin D. Cutting out grains however is something I would like to try. It just seems to be very difficult to cut out.
@doc_ramadani :
It was a Ph.d. working doctor at a hospital that diagnosed my asthma.
He did a function lung test. I would have to get back to you to give you answers about the VC and FEV1.
I have always been allergic to dustmites. Had a new test not long ago. Nothing new.
I use regular inhalers and a daily pill aswell. Right now I have shifted to Alvesco inhaler to see if it's different. The pill is called Montelukast.
I never experienced heartburn.
Winckler
thanks for providing these detailed informations. Based on the informations it is not necessary to have the actual values of the VC and FEV1.
It is clear that you have an allergic asthma. And from my medical point of view you have been diagnosed and are treated on a very high standard. Your doctor did a very professional job.
The only ways to treat allergic asthma are to avoid contact to the allergic agent or to do a desensibilisation. Since it is very hard to avoid the contact to dustmites (unless you life 1,600 metres above sea height) you should either use the medication or think about a desensibilisation. The possibility to do a desensibilisation against dustmites is relatively new (at least in Europe). It wasn't available 10+ years ago. Maybe you want to ask your Ph. D. about this.
But, all this said, to my knowledge it should be possible to learn and use proper open throat singing while taking the medication for your asthma. I can see no problem to do this (I had a quick review in the pharmaceutical databases). Maybe you could post a basic LAH triad scale and we could try to help you to check the technique you use for singing.
I hope these infos help you a bit.
Doc
I feel that I as you say I has been treated in a very high standard.
I have tried desensibilisation with injections. Didn't help much unfortunately. I know there another possibility with pills which I might try.
At this moment because of other circumstances I am not practising singing, so I won't post a LAH scale right now. But it seems based on your answers aswell that I will have to try finding a way by taking medication and having a good vocal technique. The ENT I visited did also say this was possible and that he knows singers that are taking asthma medication.
So thanks for the answers doc, I aprreciate it a lot!
I was diagnosed professionally with asthmatic allergic reaction to, among other things, the dust that was kicked up from the bottom of a bird cage located next to my desk at my then-employer. Yeah, it sounds kooky, but I was a Temp, and the assignment was to work with a writer, who operated from his home. We separated myself from the bird and cage, and my asthma continued for some time, to include an allergy to dust and such.
I was placed on Advair inhaler once a day. My singing voice was not so great, until I began swallowing a small amount of raw honey followed by a small amount of lemon juice, in the morning. This wasn't for the asthma.. it was a solution offered to me by a Dr for my allergies!
I want to give you hope by saying that within 6 months, I WON First place at a Karaoke contest (Kansas' Dust in the Wind).. yes I nailed that one high note perfectly!
Just saying.. I am here now, still singing 11 years later, without the Advair, although I do keep an Albuterol Inhaler just in case. Except in rare times, my asthma symptoms are gone, because my allergy sensitivity is almost gone. Do not give up!
I also saw a Dr about my food allergies (causing intestinal symptoms), and through the use of the BioSet System, she relieved me of 90 per cent of my food allergy troubles.