Julie Treible caught a common spring cold this year and lost her ability to speak — for six weeks. The cold had turned into bronchitis, then laryngitis — at least that's what she thought.
"April 1 I got a cold, and this part never got better — my voice," says the 43-year-old single mom in a forced whisper.
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Treible's condition, called functional dysphonia, is caused when the muscles that control the vocal cords tighten up and lock. In Treible's case, the vocal cords were locked in an open position so that the air from her lungs simply passed over but not across the vocal cords themselves, so they were unable to vibrate and produce sound.
By massaging and relaxing the muscles in her throat, Milstein was able to release the vocal cords and allow Treible to speak again — all in about seven minutes.
"In order to produce voice, you need to have a very good balance of muscle tone in a lot of different muscles that are involved in voice production," Milstein says. "So an intervention like this, where basically you manipulate these muscles and try to restore the internal balance, is very effective."
The problem, it turns out, is fairly common. Milstein estimates he sees about 10 patients like Treible every month, some of whom have been without a voice for up to two to three years. One reason for the delay in treatment, Milstein says, is that things like cancer, infection, acid reflux and neurological problems need to be ruled out — and those diagnostics may involve multiple doctors, medications and expensive tests.
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This was at the Cleveland Clinic Head and Neck Institute.