What Do You Do When You Lose Your Voice?
This last week, I lost my voice, I became somewhat bedridden and battled several new factors of health I’ve never personally experienced before.
I just want you to get the real, honest, transparent dose of wellness from me this week. This newsletter comes out on Sunday instead of Saturday, due to some of the exhausting symptoms I’ve had this week.
It’s been weird. It’s been strange. What’s new? Life is always weird, and seems to always feel a bit strange ever since the beginning of 2020.
As someone who very much relies on his voice and the power of communication for personal and professional work, if I was completely transparent with you… this last week has even been a little scary for me.
I’ve heard crazy stories of people unexpectedly losing their voice for months or years. I didn’t want that to be me. And thankfully, my voice is slowly coming back. I sure can’t sing any better than I could before, butI do hope it comes back to full health soon.
With all that being said, I actually learned by briefly breaking my silence to release some cacophonous questions to others locally, in which I’ve learned “yea, it seems to be going around.”
My cousin - apparently he lost his voice a week prior to me.
An old boss I had at local Panera Bread cafe - yea he too lost his voice recently “It’s been a rough past few weeks man. What you’re hearing today is actually the best it’s been all month. I just stopped coughing crap up today for the firs time.”
“Yo brother, good luck and hope you get better too!“
I gather my thoughts this week and think - so what the heck are we dealing with here?
Is this just allergies as others have so quickly dismissed this out to be … or is this something else entirely?
I know what allergies are, and I know what common symptoms are attributed to allergies, and this ain’t them from the best of my knowledge.
So what is this, then? I know the larger discussion on the crazy SARS-2 Covid-19 novel coronavirus highlighted how the virus could simply ride the wind and be carried through the air.
So perhaps the natural biological balance of air molecules across the globe has taken a biological adaptation just like the rest of us humans as we hope to get vaccinated and build our immune systems. Are the trees of the earth, flowers and fruits of the soil, and birds of the air adapting with us? I assume they are.
Because you see, no system in biology works in isolation. Just as a cow’s manure can be fertilizer for a plant, there is no after thought about the importance of what would seemingly be best described as - well nothing but a pile of crap. But that pile of crap actually does make a difference in the grand scheme of things.
Likewise, when we frack for oil and gas or mine for coal, we inevitable release extreme amounts of heavy metals, toxins, and air pollutants in the air (and some into water systems as well) which pose real-life consequences on our biological ecosystems. And this we need to realize is the truth.
So as we continue to genetically alter meat DNA in laboratories, genetically modify crops, salmon, strawberries, potatoes, and more… might we also need to consider the ramifications of such “toying with things we know very little about?”
We humans think we are invincible, especially when we are in our teenage years and early 20s, but we’re not. Our resources are not invincible either. You’ve heard me say it before but we need to be brutally honest with ourselves about things and face the fact that we are all infinitely interconnected, different and distinct, but indefinitely directly related to one another on a cosmic scale.
Okay, enough angry ranting and venting for today, to answer the headline question above.. what do you do when you lose your voice (besides grow increasingly fearful of not living out your calling or struggle to make necessary phone calls, or simply grow scared for “what happens if I need to cry out for help?!” - well, what I did was sleep, drink, and sweat as much as I could. Even if this doesn’t sound fun, this is exactly what ended up being the course of events for my week.
Now without a meaningful segway in place, let’s dive into some healthful highlights of Why We Sleep and what we can do to improve our sleep heath overall!
😴 Why We Sleep - by Matt Walker 📚
Breaking down some relevant content for you today, just a brief excerpt of this great book
Poor sleep has been linked to a 70% dec in Natural Killer T-cell activity.
What are Natural Killer cells you ask? Well, they belong to our immune system!
These are the common cells linked to Cancer, acting as a selective and specific killer for bad guys while making sure to leave all the good guys around.
In autoimmunity, killer cells can start attacking friendly cells, like friendly fire in a battle field, but with respect to cancer, they are of interest to make sure they can selectively differentiate good from bad and fight cancer cells without destroying the host cells in the process of waging war in the fight for health
And as you can expect, people who have more poor sleep, that is they have worse sleep health, have higher risks of cancer? (among a whole host of other chronic disease, such as heart disease and diabetes too)? 😓
For those individuals working throughout the night, aka “shift work” in the UK or titled “3rd Shift” on the other side of the pond in the US — well these folks are exposing themselves to probable carcinogens everyday with this poor sleep/wake cycle lifestyle. ☀️
In brief, working the “night shift” has been suggested to promote higher risks of cancer by the World Health Organization. 😯
The human body was born to move, born to breathe, born to work, and born to sleep on a time cycle that follows the mighty sunlight and sunshine in the sky; [there’s only a small percentage of people who actually are more “nocturnal” so to speak, and chances are you’re not one of them. The fact is, most of us would do much better off listening to the cycle of the sunlight to structure our daily lives. Circadian rhythms can be tweaked, can be remedied and can be hacked to fit your lifestyle.
I’d be more than happy to help in a 1-1 coaching session if you like, just give me a ring and we’ll set something up to redesign your life, your light, and optimize your sleep - quite possibly the first order need for true health transformation.
If you can’t sleep, you can’t function at your best.
And as we looked a few weeks ago at The Power of The Sun to promote human life and promote human health, this just shows yet another reason to reconsider the way we live our lives and how we push humanity to the limits, typically in parallel with compromising health trends and behaviors.
So, jumping back to our immune system - when we don’t sleep well, we can’t heal well, we can’t fight well, and we typically can’t feel well.
“Human beings are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep, for no apparent reason.” - Matt Walker
It’s simple, deprived sleep = deprived health.
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams - Matt Walker
Book Available on Amazon
So what are some simple tips to help?
Eat, sleep, wake, and move - regularly on a routine. 📆
Keep your bedroom colder than warmer, sleep improves with a bit colder temps for most people (I like it near 62 degrees F myself)
Keep your bedroom DARK and avoid working in bed 🌚 🌚
Avoid blue lights - try red lights, screen filters, blue-light blocking glasses
Leave your screens away, your phone turned off and at least 6-ft away during your sleep 📲 📵
Breathe deeply - breathe into your lower belly to help you relax and restore your ability to sleep well (in search of breathing techniques anyone?)
Every new season brings new delight and new challenges. This is the ebb and flow of life and our values will continue to be our guiding compass leading our steps forward.
We Zig and We Zag, as we learn to adapt. Let us know in our community Facebook group what you’ve been dealing with, challenged by, or ways you’re learning to adapt in your own life.
Stay Happy, Stay Healthy!
Jonathan ZaZa aka Jonathan Isbill