Has anyone used slippery elm to help their voice?

Hi all. I'm new to this forum. Back in December I had laryngitis and haven't fully regained my voice yet. I went to an ENT and speech pathologist and they suggested it might be acid reflux but the diet they put me on didn't help much. I heard about slippery elm and ordered some slippery elm lozenges online. I haven't received them yet. Has anyone else tried these and did they work for you?

It can take awhile to fully get your voice back.

make sure that you keep hydrated with water. Drink apple juice, make sure that you get a good amount of vitamin C.

Vitamin C in large doses becomes an extremely effective antihistamine. When I got Larynigitis, I started taking 10,000Mg's an hour.

I'm not suggesting that you do this, but it helped me. be forewarned, if you do choose to use C in megadoses, the idea is that you take it until you get diarrhea - a Vitamin C overdose gives you the runs - and it flushes toxins out of your body.

Here is where I learned about this. I have one of Dr. Saul's books.

http://www.doctoryourself.com/laryngitis.html

Also, these suppliments are good for singers to take.

1 Zinc

1 Magnesium

1 Potassium

If you can find it, try salted black licorice. It's not for someone who already does not like black licorice, but it's worked for me in the past when I was dealing with a lot of sore throats, etc. The salt is good for promoting healing and the licorice will definitely lubricate.

Over the counter, generic Omeprazole--you can find it at Walgreens under their own brand really fixed my heartburn/acid reflux.

Thanks for all your suggestions.

Licorice is a natural steroid, and the only thing you have to be careful about with taking it, is be aware that it can cause you to have high blood pressure.

I don't like black licorice so I hope that I can find something else that works before trying that. Luckily I have low blood pressure so that won't be an issue.

You can get natural licorice drops as a liquid extract.

Also, take some Clover Honey, a little bit of Braggs' Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, and a few drops of lemon extract (like one of those "squuezable lemons you can get at the grocery store) and mix that with hot water and sip that. That will help some.

Now, if you have your voice back, and it is just a bit weak - very lightly slide up and down using an EEE sound. That causes your vocal cords to seal the way they are supposed to. Do it very lightly, and very slowly.

That will help you start getting your range back.

I found this organic "Honeygar"....honey and cider vinegar in health food shop, I dilute it 1 part in 9 in hot water with some local honey (to combat pollen allergies) and sometimes a sachet of vit C , and I sip it all through the day before a gig....alternating that and bottled water.

It really clears and lubricates my thoat and it tastes really good too, dunno if you ever drank mead, but it's got that kind of flavour.

I know what you mean. Once I learned about the Vinegar and Honey and started drinking it, I was surprized at how much I love it, and you are right - it does remind me of mead!

I have drank mead. Funny, a recording engineer turned me and my husband on to that at an Irish festival once. Thanks for all the suggestions. I already ordered the slippery elm lozenges so I'm going to try those but now I have lots of other things to try as well. My speech pathologist encouraged me to do the eeee exercises too. I have to do that more.

So is slippery elm kind of new? I'm surprised no one else wrote saying that they tried that.

I thought slippery elm was for the digestive system, I have to admit.

From what I read, it is for the digestive tract too but supposedly coats the throat and helps vocal chords.