Anyone Else With Vocal Problems?

[teemaree]

I was reading in another thread, unrelated to this, that someone had vocal problems

I was also struggling through near impossible physical obstacles to maintain what was left of my operatic voice as it was becoming harder by the day to find the strength to do what was necessary to overcome the physical problems that were shutting my voice down. Once I went gluten-free I found the road to vocal wellness but, I no longer have the desire to sing.

I too use to be a singer, but noticed as I grew sicker from Celiac, (I didn't know what it was celiac then)...

But noticed as I grew thinner and weaker and more stressed etc.... at the same time my vocal chords wouldn't work properly, I was unable to hold notes , my voice became deeper and uncontrolable and weaker. My singing voice was once very very strong, but unfortunately I now have lost the ability to sing.

I am wondering if others have had vocal issues due to celiac?.........I haven't read that it affects the voice anywhere... but upon reading the above statement, it got me wondering if others also noticed voice changes?

[julirama723]

I don't know if vocal problems are related to celiac, but I do know that hoarseness and voice changes are related to thyroid problems, specifically hypothyroidism. (Both celiac and hypothyroidism are autoimmune disorders.)

[teemaree]

hmm okay thank you for that...

I know my doctor is checking for thyroid problems with the latest blood tests he has ordered.

So I will be interested now in seeing if this is the cause of the vocal changes I had...

You know so many people get upset that they have celiac and feel cheated out of being normal,

I am finding that having celiac is the answers to so many life long problems I have had to endure.

Each and every day I discover answers as to why certain things had happened with my health.

And to now learn and discover that just by chopping out certains foods etc, I can feel like a new person is truly amazing for me.

It's wonderful to feel what being content and happy feels like...

I also do highly suspect now after reading the symptoms and problems with thyroid, that may be a strong reason for other ailments and problems I have had.

Guess I will know for sure when the blood results come back.

Does Celiac induce thyroid problems?

[chatycady]

I can relate to the voice issue. I no longer have the problem, but I used to have days where my voice was very weak and people would tell me I sounded weak and sickly. I don't have that problem anymore. It went away as I got better.

Many celiacs have thyroid issues and other autoimmune diseases. There is a connection.

[codetalker]

I don't know if vocal problems are related to celiac, but I do know that hoarseness and voice changes are related to thyroid problems, specifically hypothyroidism.

I can add that voice problems can be related to food allergies as well. I developed allergies to a long list of food (in addition to the celiac prohibited list). The reaction causes no celiac-type symptoms. Rather, there is swelling in my neck. When I am on the far side of that and it is clearing up, my voice becoomes very hoarse.

[LuvMoosic4life]

just wondering, are you female??

Ever since going gluten free I noticed changes in my voice, but I'm pretty sure they are due to hormone changes throughout the month. I've had my thyroid checked several times and they say its normal. BUt all of the symptoms I feel are very similar to thyroid. At certain times of the month my voice is completely weak. I can talk fine, but my throat starts to feel soar if I talk too much...and singing on some days in just out of the question.....its like my vocal chords are retaining water...very frustrating when my life revolves around music!!!! I am going to the doc in the near future and I want all this figured out as well!!!

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I have been unable to sing more than half an octave or so since my last endoscopy. I think my vocal chords may have been nicked or bruised. (Luckily, I am not a professional singer, but it would have been nice to have been able to keep singing lullabies to my kids. )

Acid reflux can also affect the vocal chords.

[Di-gfree]

I used to be able to sing when I was younger - my friend and I sung together all the time. Now, I can't sing at all - think really bad audition on American Idol...

I think it's the hypothyroidism for me. Could be the other messed up hormones, too. Could be the celiac. I'm not sure. I get a sore throat a lot, and I think it's my thyroid flaring up because of Hashimoto's. And, I agree with the reference to acid reflux, too.

[jsca]

I ran across this thread when I was researching glutens and vocal cords. I do not have celiacs disease that I know of, but I do have scalp psoriasis. I have had it for about 40 years. The last few years have been frustrating for me. Besides the flaking and itch from psoriasis, I was losing my hair (I'm a woman and the only one in my family who has ever had thinning hair, man or woman), and I was losing my singing voice. I've never had a really strong voice, but I could easily carry a tune and had a little over a two octave range. At the worst, I could barely hold one note without it breaking and wavering. I went gluten-free and steroid-free in January. My psoriasis has improved after a temporary flare common after going off steroids, but what has really amazed me is that my hair is starting to come back in and my singing voice is coming back. I think my voice is back to about 90 to 95% of what it was. I'm enjoying singing again. I can't say for sure if the vocal improvement is from the gluten-free, the steroid-free, or something else all together, but I felt I should at least weigh-in on this topic.

[RideAllWays]

I was a low alto with a weak upper range before my diagnosis. I could always hit high notes but they were raspy. After a year being gluten free I am now a strong soprano, my range has increased by nine notes in the past year (I could hit them before but now I can SING them, if you know what I mean)..

I never even thought of it being related.

[chasbari]

I believe that may have been my statement from a year ago. I was so overwhelmed with getting everything right, the diet, the health, the recovery that it was all very overwhelming. I have been singing for 30 plus years and when I was initially diagnosed and treated first for rheumatoid arthritis nearly ten years ago is when the vocal decline started in earnest. As a result of a number of drugs they treated my RA with early on I started to lose, in steps, my voice, my hearing and visual acuity. I later found out I was very right to stop treatment with those drugs in light of my finally diagnosed celiac disease many years later. The damage, however, seemed to have been done though. I kept cutting back my vocal responsibilities and nearly three years ago gave up all performance contracts and jobs. I kept teaching voice as best as I could but could no longer muscle/finesse my way through the simplest of repertoire. I felt like I was dying on so many levels. By the time I was dx'ed with celiac disease the damage was so severe and I was dealing with so many issues just making it through the day was a major challenge. I went strict paleo after a short time of trying the "western equivalency replacement celiac diet" to no avail. The change was immediate and amazing. I have gotten through the darkest moments of not wanting to sing and have begun working on major rep I could never consider singing even when I thought I was relatively healthy. I have been to a number of major auditions and have more upcoming. I sang a Mozart "Requiem" in November, sang Melchior in "Amahl and the Night Visitors" with a regional orchestra in December among my comeback successes. I never realized how much singing around systemic inflammation I had learned over the years until it was no longer there. I did much zwischenfache throughout my earlier studies as no one really knew what my voice was as I had a rather large range. I learned how to lighten up and artificially move the voice up and worked rather unsuccessfully as a tenor for a number of years only to be jealous any time I heard baritones who I could easily outsing in the lower registers. Now that the inflammation is at bay I find myself actually opening up into the bass baritone range and Verdi, especially, is very comfortable and there is a body and timbre to my voice that was never present before treatment for my celiac disease. Vocal recovery after hard performance is almost immediate. that is a radical departure from my whole "hope I can make it through tomorrow's performance" mentality if I over-reached in today's performance. There is just no sense of over-reaching anymore. I cannot overstate how profound the difference has been. I always considered myself a brittle singer who had to be fastidious about my technique as opposed to many of my friends who could seemingly trash their voices and roll out the next day ready to sing again. Now I suppose I could do that if I wanted (I don't!) I do suppose, with all my autoimmune issues that thyroid was involved as well as structural decline my rheumatologist wrote off as being permanent and unreversible. So glad he appears to have been incorrect in that assessment. I do note that caloric intake has to be high and I have to maintain a decent amount of protein intake concurrent with performance or I do suffer some short term phonatory complications. When I feed the instrument I can sing well. When I get run down and fail to eat in a supportive way I have a little glitch that shows up.. almost as if I go catabolic and it affects the mucosal lining of the vocal tract until I get back on the right dietary intake. So, there you have it, FWIW.

CS