BackStage Utah

Airborne.  Just drink that constantly.

My voice instructor always praised garlic (garlic extract capsules being the most effective) for helping to get over things quickly and keep them away.  You could also try echinacea extract in pills from your local hippie store, or the more potent liquid form that you can put in your food.  It's good for your immune system.

My choir teacher always recommended throat-coat tea.

For stuffiness, I use vick's vaporub as well as a neti-pot (You can get one for about $10 at Wild Oats, plus another couple dollars for the saline solution.  It feels really odd at first, but it does WONDERS for your sinuses.).  For sore throat, I drink lemonaide and suck on peppermints for temporary relief.  Lots of fluids, especially water, orange juice, and hot tea.  Also hot soup!  It's really essential to keep your vocal cords lubricated.  A cold buster from Jamba Juice always does wonders for my throat.

Nyquil before bed, also put a humidifier next to your bed.  Warm, humid air, especially while you're sleeping, since your body does most of it's healing then, is essential.  If you have to go outside, wrap up in a scarf so you can breathe through that instead of directly inhaling the dry, frigid air.

Also, a hot shower is the best place to warm up/sing.    Hope some or all of these tips help, I know how rough it can be right before an anticipated performance. 

City_Girl wrote on Feb 6^th, 2008 at 10:48am:

Yep. Airborne, Water, Zinc. Those are the good ones. There are millions of anecdotes, but that's what's really reliable.

That said:
I once had an awful throat - complete loss of my voice - before a performance of The Trojan Women. A singer friend recommended a slowly sipped shot of Blackberry Brandy. I don't recommend drinking before going on stage ... but I was able to produce some sound, at least.

As you probably know - avoid Chlorasceptic and most lozenges - they numb the throat, and can lead to damage.

When I was sick during Rocky Horror Show, I patchworked together a lot of stuff that seemed to help... Xena and Spiker pushed the Throat-Coat tea (with honey, because it helps counteract how dry it is around here), and that helped a lot. Spiker also told me to use Ricola throat drops because they wouldn't numb me up and make me do worse damage. I kept one in the corner of my mouth the whole time I was onstage. I also took a lot of Zicam (basically the same thing as Airborne, but it comes in lots of different forms-- I used the throat spray and the nose swabs. They sound gross but they work wonders and really shorten your cold if you use them consistently).

My old voice teacher also recommended this stuff... oh lord, it was awful. I believe it had chili pepper in it... do any of you guys know what I'm talking about? It's meant to warm up and bring the blood back into your vocal cords... it is HORRIBLE but it really helped. I'll see what I can find out about it for you.

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I would be interested in the measurements for this!

Incidentally, you can't sell people, or even human parts or remains (with a few exceptions) on eBay.    Yeah, I'm a huge nerd and used to work for eBay on the prohibited items team.  Every time somebody mentions "I'll sell such and such item on eBay!" I have to bite back the urge to say, "Actually, you can't because of this law, or that internal policy, or because this happened...".  It still escapes sometimes.