It's Where I Am with Zandra Polard

Speaker 1 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KU NBC Studios on public radio K, u and v. 91.5. You're listening

Speaker 2 0:11
to special programming brought to you by it's where I am.com The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jobs and more University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Zandra Polard 0:52
Good morning Las Vegas. It's Zondra Pola card. It's where I am. today. We're talking about our larynx. And we have previous guests here today on the phone, Dr. Michael, John's, we want to thank you for coming on to the show. Dr. Michael John's is the director of the USC voice center, division director leren Golgi. Professor, USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. That's all love your ABCs in that title, lot of alphabets. How are you doing?

Unknown Speaker 1:37
I am well Zondra. Wow. So

Zandra Polard 1:40
we got some great response when you were on I believe it was last year. We got some phone calls. We had some questions. I got some DMs. And I had to let everyone know how wonderful you are. But you do not live in the Las Vegas area. You are in Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 1:57
So yes, indeed. Yes. Angie.

Zandra Polard 2:02
Yeah. So I wanted to clarify that. But the information that you gave was so salient. And I want to repeat some of that and ask some other questions this time. Okay. So Well, that

Dr. Johns 2:13
just sounds great. I'm just thrilled that that our previous conversation was well received.

Zandra Polard 2:19
Yes, it was. So can you explain is there a difference between an ear nose and throat doctor and yourself and auto laryngologist are they wanted to say

Dr. Johns 2:33
so Ear, Nose and Throat doctor is the common term for otolaryngology used to be even longer OTO, Rhino leren Golgi. And that is odo is ear rhino is nose and larynx of course is denotes throat and so that's a there's connections between all those components. And so that's why the field exists. It's your nose and throat. And now beyond that people will specialize further in just the ear. Just the nose. Just the throat just had neck cancer. I'm specialized in just the throat we call that leren Golgi voice swallow in the airway.

Zandra Polard 3:17
Okay. So, I have a lot of questions about the throat, the larynx, right? So does the environment affect the way that we the way that our larynx is operating?

Dr. Johns 3:33
Well for sure, and the larynx and the throat, we call this pharynx it really serves an important function in our bodies, we think of the voice box larynx which it is as producing voice but really our throat functions with swallowing with breathing, clearing our throat coughing and we'll touch on some of those things but creating a healthy environment and your throat is really really important to its good functioning and a lot of moving parts in there and think of it like an engine you want to have clean healthy oil in your engine so everything's working smooth isn't being overtaxed. Okay,

Zandra Polard 4:16
so you know, living in Las Vegas, there are a lot of there's a lot of vegetation that's shipped in. Right. So now in the valley, a lot of people are experiencing allergies more than ever. Yes,

Dr. Johns 4:32
indeed. And you know, is in Las Vegas, the West in general that remember we're in a Desert, desert climate. And so seems like a bit of an uphill battle and sort of keeping a healthy, lubricated, moist environment or our throat and that can be for a lot for a lot of reasons. And air temperature, dryness, low humidity, dust, smog, these kinds of things can be irritants, and they'll dry out your throat, your body will respond with inflammation to the irritants. And then beyond that, where there's things that you're talking about, kind of allergies, whether it's to native plants or plants that have brought in or to insects or what have you, um, allergies, it's pretty common. And the typical symptoms you feel up in your nose and your eyes, stuffy nose, itchy eyes, and, and it can affect the throat to itchiness and the throat increased mucus, but typically doesn't cause a lot of isolated voice problems. That's something to keep in mind.

Zandra Polard 5:44
So what does it mean when you hear someone clearing their throat all the time? Like, you know, are they dehydrated? Or do they is there's some special something we can eat to keep our larynx more lubricated. Other than water, so

Dr. Johns 5:58
yeah, so it's important thing about kind of what a throat clear is, okay, like a mini cough, the same thing happens. Your vocal cords or vocal folds as they're more accurately called, squeezed together, and then you exhale either lightly, like a throat clear, or more heavily, like a cough. Same things happening. And so the body is sensing that something irritates and wants to expel it with a throat clear or a cough. So sometimes that can be things that just dried out down there, the mucus has gotten sick. It's got kind of a more dense or jelly like consistency. And but sometimes it can be acid reflux, irritation. So acid and gastric juices from the stomach coming up through the esophagus can irritate things. Sometimes it can be allergies, but most importantly, it so commonly can be a behavior. And you can it's like an itch scratch cycle where something starts to itch, you scratch it, it makes it much more and all of a sudden, you know, your throat clear at all.

Zandra Polard 7:11
Okay, gotcha. And that's why we have the little button here. If you have to do a little, we can just precedent no one has to hear it. Okay. So anyhow,

Dr. Johns 7:25
everybody's got to clear their throat from time to time and cough from time to time. But if it's if you have an urge to be doing it all the time, that's worth, you know, first of all, trying to stop it to checking in on your hydration in your environment. Three, check in with a doctor if you need to. Okay,

Zandra Polard 7:43
now, is there anything like is it good to take like, a teaspoon of castor oil or olive oil or something like that? Will that help in any way?

Dr. Johns 7:51
Yeah, so let's let's let's pull up all these intellect throat lubricants, okay, whether it's a spray, or whether it's a lozenge or whether it's a tea. And so those kinds of things that we put in our mouths, and then ultimately swallow, or gargle and spit out or whatnot, that coats the throat coats your mouth, but it doesn't get to the inside of the voice box. And so that's a protected area because if things go in that area, you will have a cough reflex, it's called an aspiration event thing, something went down the wrong pipe. So all the things we put in our in our mouths don't actually touch the vocal cords themselves. So we have a rule of thumb that we can follow on this one. If it cools, numb or tingles, probably not something you want to avoid because typically there's some menthol in there eucalyptus or something that numbing of the tissues are changing how they feel, and those can be drying and are irritants. Beyond that it feels good. Some people like you know, hot water and honey some people like you know ice cold beverages or little sparkling beverage in moderation. All that feels good. Okay, as long as it doesn't cool number tangle.

Zandra Polard 9:14
Okay, well, that's easy to remember. Isn't it? So? Oh, there's more. Okay.

Dr. Johns 9:21
Yo, there can be more Okay, so, the the, when you do want to hydrate the inside of the voicebox will of course drinking lots of water and healthy beverages helps hydrate your body. But even inhalation or saltwater saline nebulization where you're kind of breathing in a cool mist. Oh, yes. That will directly hydrate your vocal folds and is extremely helpful helpful, especially in dry climates. You can get that. In portable devices even the shower the old school boil, boil, some water turned on turn the stove off and then breathe in the steam. All that is a hydrating directly to your larynx bulk fold that is healthy.

Zandra Polard 10:10
humidifier, basically,

Dr. Johns 10:13
humidifier. Exactly. Fundamentally humidifier generating that aerosolized humidity that you can breathe in

Zandra Polard 10:21
instant hydration humidifier or boil some water on the stove, turn off that flame and inhale, and you will have some hydration to those vocal cords. Wonderful. Now, what about asthma? Do you work with a lot of asthma asthmatic patients.

Dr. Johns 10:39
So that is a is an area that's typically managed by primary care doctors, and then lung specialists. Okay, so we're working in partnership with our colleagues there. And there can be effects and some areas that overlap. So people who have asthma commonly will have allergies. And, and so and then, of course, people who have have asthma or allergies, you know, may those are things we want to know when we're taking care of them for their throat problems voice, breathing, or swallowing.

Zandra Polard 11:15
And then you also work with speech therapists, and then the people who do like the swallowing tests in the hospital. Right,

Dr. Johns 11:23
exactly. And those the speech language pathologists to give a shout out to our speech language pathology partners, and they're the throat rehabilitation specialists. And we work side by side with them. Think of it like a sports medicine team for the for the throat, then the end of the day, a lot of moving parts in there. And there's kind of medical and surgical treatments for problems. And there's behavioral treatment, rehabilitation, and our speech pathologist do all the behavioral and rehabilitative treatments for the throat. Okay, so we work side by side. So

Zandra Polard 12:02
what is a good practice? I know that a lot of actors and singers, they'll do a warm up in the morning. And so if I'm going on the radio, or if I'm giving a speech, let's say somewhere at at at an event, what is a good warm up? That I can do? Before speaking?

Dr. Johns 12:20
Yeah, so in general, it makes sense to warm up the moving parts in our body before we're gonna gonna use them.

Zandra Polard 12:28
That's right. So we stretch in the morning, we stretch our muscles, right? Right.

Dr. Johns 12:32
Yes, indeed. And so similar with the, with the voice. And so now, our it's our speech pathology colleagues, our voice coach and voice teachers will develop specialized warm ups. And so this isn't a direct specialty area for me, but there's good online resources for healthy a warm ups for day to day, speakers, and a vocational professional or a vocational singers. If you're a pro, though, you probably want to have, you know, you want to have a voice coach voice teacher on your own.

Zandra Polard 13:10
And for those who can't get that right away, you can go online and find some exercises to warm up that voice, right?

Dr. Johns 13:17
Yes, indeed. And we're thinking of light. Mm hmm. A lot of vowel stick and all the sounds in the front and the Buzz Light quality. Okay.

Zandra Polard 13:27
I know that I was seeing a speech pathologist here. There's one out here in Las Vegas. And I don't remember the name of our practice. You may remember her first name is Linda, I believe. Do you know I'm talking

Dr. Johns 13:40
about Linda ganz? The Vegas voice Institute? Yes, indeed. Yeah, Holly there and a great local resource for all things throughout rehabilitation,

Zandra Polard 13:50
you know, I'm gonna have to reach out to her. So thank you for that. I want to I just thank you so much for coming back on to the show. Again, this information is so important, because there's a lot of people that I know personally, who are using their voices all the time, you know, and sometimes, you know, you need a vocal rest. Sometimes you need to do those exercises that you were referring to, you can find some online, like you said, and I want to bring you back so that we can remind people of how to take care of our voices, things that we need to be aware of, when it's time to see a professional and some of those things could be constant clearing of the throat if the steam or the humidifier is not working for you, because as you said, that is an instant hydration. And also what are some other telltale signs of I think they're called telltale signs of needing to see a professional.

Dr. Johns 14:51
Yes, indeed, this is really important. So we're kind of getting into to voice and here and you know, we can't talk about Voice and problems with the voice without thinking about a little bit how important voice is to us beyond that, it's the primary way that we communicate is a reflection of our vitality. And it's so much your identity is caught up in voice. And so it's so important to us yet we don't really think about it, it kind of happens automatically most of the time until something goes wrong, and then you realize how much we rely on our voice. And so, you know, everyone will have some job once in a while in life, you may experience some voice change most people do. And most of the time, if you caught a bug viral illness, you get a viral laryngitis, important thing to do is rest. Don't push your vocal cords don't push your voice similar. If you've been talking and talking and talking and you overdid it vocally and your voice changes, that's likely is swelling, rest, rest, rest, because voice change hoarseness most of the time, almost all the time doesn't come with pain. And so you don't have that feedback mechanism. If I were to go on the run right now Zondra, gosh, geez, maybe 100 meters, my knees would start hurting. And that's my body telling me that I'm getting that you're doing some you're injuring something stop, right, you don't have that feedback with hoarseness, voice change. And so all you have is your ear. So if you're here voice change, time to rest your voice. If it lasts longer than two weeks, time to get it checked by someone who can look at your vocal cords as we're talking about an ear nose and throat doctor or voice best specialized Ear, Nose and Throat like myself the laryngologist okay. That's the two week rule. So if your horse for two weeks, you need to know exactly why and the way that the way to know is diagnosis. Learn gossipy.

Zandra Polard 16:59
That's important. Okay.

Dr. Johns 17:01
Now other warning signs, pain, if you've got pain lasting again longer than two weeks in your throat that needs to be checked out as to what it is. If you're spitting up blood, for sure,

Zandra Polard 17:13
oh my gosh. They'll just smoking. What does smoking do to the throat? I'm sure it just dries it out. Right? Well,

Dr. Johns 17:21
there's a couple elements to it, right? There's the heat elements, you're kind of cooking the tissue is the drying, Yamuna drying it out. And then there's the toxic chemical element to it that damaging tissues. And so, you know, we know that, that smoking is a major risk factor for laryngeal cancer. Yeah, the most, the biggest risk factor. And so, so it's not good all the way around. And so it's best to avoid that and seek alternatives. So

Zandra Polard 17:54
what are they saying about the vaping? Now, you know, everybody's vaping, you seeing the young kids? vaping? What are your thoughts on vaping?

Dr. Johns 18:01
Yeah, so the verdict is still out. And it is, it's unknown, the a lot of the health risks to be honest. Again, avoiding that is the bat. But if it's if it's between smoking and vaping, the My recommendation is to vape. But now I'd write what I always add to counsel that you really need to be thinking of stopping that come up with a plan for that.

Zandra Polard 18:33
Because there's still that nicotine in there, right? And that is very, very, very addictive.

Dr. Johns 18:39
Right. And that's all the that's all the addiction elements in the last of its gripping, and so overcoming that it's hard, and there's professional support, you know, for that for people to overcome that. But that's the key. Right? And yeah, yeah. And

Zandra Polard 18:58
you know what, this is a question for Don Marquez, who's on our show. I'm wondering if vaping is now on the information for what is done due west. He does the program for insurance life insurance. Yeah, yeah. And so I know a lot of times they asked Do you smoke? Or if you go into the hospital, the question is, do you smoke, but vaping is not on there? As far as I know.

Dr. Johns 19:28
Yeah. Yeah. And so you're we're seeing more and more sort of expansion and also tobacco products, where there's chewing tobacco vaping smoking, and then I do know that that oftentimes, there's there's testing before insurance policies are given to see if someone has been using tobacco products. So that's also not so much my main expertise. My expertise is to counsel my patients on what's healthy for their throats and avoiding those things is healthier?

Zandra Polard 20:04
Exactly. So anyhow, is there anything else you'd like to let our listeners know before I let you go?

Dr. Johns 20:14
Well, I think about how important your voices to you and recognize that it's something that should be easy and free for you to use to express yourself. And if it starts to not work, right, listen to your voice, it might be telling you something, and go get it checked out.

Zandra Polard 20:36
There you go. And so then you will also have to find your local Auntie, you know what, actually start with your primary doctor, talk to your primary doctor about your voice if you're if you think you have an issue, and then they can give you a referral to your auntie, okay.

Unknown Speaker 20:54
Your primary care doctor is your quarterback. That's right.

Zandra Polard 20:59
All right, Dr. John's, well, thank you for calling in and giving us some voice and larynx education.

Dr. Johns 21:08
Thank you for the opportunity. It was delightful.

Zandra Polard 21:11
Thank you. Take care. All right, you too. Hey, 91.5, jazz and more, I want to let you know that you can tune in every Saturday at 7:30am to listen to the show. It's where I am with Zondra polearm. If you've missed any portion of this broadcast, you can always find me on your favorite podcast platform. And mine are Apple, Google, Spotify and Amazon. It's where I am with Zondra. And I'll come right on up and you can hear this show and the many others that are there. So we will talk to you next week. Have a great day. And now I'm going to play one of my favorite songs. Moments in love by the Art of Noise Enjoy.

Unknown Speaker 24:36
Now Now, now. Now now, now now now, now. Now, now. Now. Now. Now. Now now Now

Transcribed by https://otter.ai