Can What Makes a Lion Roar Help Human With a Weak Voice?

Researchers in Iowa have discovered what makes a lion or tiger roar so effectively. Apparently, there is a layer of fat within large feline vocal cords that makes the vocal cords especially prone to vibrate easily with minimal exhalation effort.

What import does this have to humans?

Well, there are patients who have a very weak voice due to vocal cord atrophy as well as vocal cord paralysis. Standard interventions include voice therapy as well as surgical procedures using an implant or injectable material in order to "bulk" up the vocal cord.

In fact... one such injectable material that has been used to inject into vocal cords is fat, typically taken from the belly of the patient!

Two points to keep in mind however...

Just like in lions and tigers, it DOES improve the vocal strength and volume to a patient who previously had a weak voice, may now have a much stronger voice after the procedure.

However, the second point is that by making the vocal cord "bulkier" you are making it thicker which can decrease the vocal pitch... just like a violin string where the thicker the string, the lower the pitch.

On another related note... human infants have fat within their vocal cords... that may be why something so small with tiny lungs can produce such a terrific loud cry!

Read a story in the NYT regarding this research here.

Reference:
Adapted to Roar: Functional Morphology of Tiger and Lion Vocal Folds. PLoS ONE 6(11): e27029. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0027029

New Webpage on Thyroid Mass (Evaluation and Management)

A new webpage has been uploaded to our practice website describing the evaluation and management of a thyroid mass. Surgical removal is discussed along with risks involved.

Click here to read more!

New Webpage on Bilateral Vocal Cord Paralysis (or Fixation)

We have written up a new webpage discussing the unfortunate situation of bilateral vocal cord paralysis whereby both breathing and vocal quality is adversely affected.

Treatment for bilateral vocal cord paralysis is difficult and there is no perfect solution. Treatment to improve breathing usually makes the voice worse. Treatment to improve the voice usually makes the breathing worse. The best (but not perfect) treatment tries to pick a happy medium to address the breathing while trying not to hurt the voice too much, though some degradation in vocal quality is to be expected. Such treatment includes posterior cordotomy +/- medial arytenoidectomy.

In another situation, the patient may have bilateral vocal cord fixation resulting in the appearance of vocal cord paralysis, but is potentially "curable" with normal breathing and normal voice being the goal.

Click here to read more! Video and audio also included.

To read more about UNILATERAL vocal cord paralysis, click here. Treatment is completely different than for bilateral vocal cord paralysis.