Spasmodic Dysphonia

Important: SD, Stuttering, Laryngitis have very similar characteristics when you observe them from a breathing perspective. Similar properly sequenced Optimal Breathing techniques for SD work also for stuttering and laryngitis.

Dear Mike:
My voice is doing fine. I appreciate the help that you provided me and learning about breathing as a factor in this illness". 

The above woman came to work with me in person. There is NO quick fix for SD.  Botox is NOT the answer. It only addresses the symptoms, not the causes.

Abductor type

Symptoms of a breathy and weak voice began in 1974 as an over-stressed undergraduate at Cornell University. There were many unanswered questions and much frustration in dealing with EENT Medical Specialists and Speech Pathologists until 1991 when I was diagnosed as having Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD). During most of the years between ‘74 & ‘91 SD had not even been a named disorder.

I applied and was accepted to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a participant in their research for treatment. The treatment for SD is local injections of Botulisum Toxin (BOTOX) to alleviate the spasms of the laryngeal muscles needed for phonation. My laryngeal muscles upon speaking were spasming open, thus the breathy quality to my voice. The research project was thorough according to medical standards of the day. Some of the procedures were: complete history and physical exam , they checked my breathing/speaking pattern via electronic chest and belly bands in conjunction with audio tape recording of simultaneous phonation, laryngoscopy to view my larynx on a monitor as I spoke, and needle electromyelography (EMG) of my laryngeal muscles.

The treatment of injections of BOTOX were administered under general anesthesia, to one side of my larynx. I was released to go home the following day. Even though I was physically in shape and an athlete all my life, for three weeks following the procedure I experienced dyspnea (difficulty breathing) with minimal physical activity such as walking to the bathroom. I had been warned that drinking liquids may have to be done through a straw, which was indeed the case. The symptomatic relief, (increase in voice quality) lasted for 3 months and was minimal compared to the side effects of the treatment.

About this same time I began chiropractic care (specifically Network Spinal Analysis) for headaches and tight neck/shoulders associated with the compensations involved in poor voice use. To my delight I found that through this particular chiropractic care my voice had greater breath support. I continued with chiropractic care, and added various body awareness techniques to my repertoire, such as The Alexander Technique and The Feldenkrais Technique. These helped, but there was still a key missing, a lasting support system was still needed for my voice.

In reviewing my progress through the years, I realized that I was greatly helped whenever my breath expanded. My breathy, weak voice needed good sound, solid, continual breath support. I then came across ‘The Breathing Coach’, Michael Grant White and his "Optimal Breathing".

My first session with Mike was unforgettable. I came to him with all the excitement and fears anyone would have with having a ‘voice disorder’ for 24 years. My goal was to have a stronger, more resonant voice for normal speaking, public speaking and singing. The initial analysis, among many other things, consisted of where there were blockages and holding patterns in my neck, chest, and back. My first task was to get a baseline on singing. This was difficult, singing in front of a stranger, and was calling all stress receptors in my body to engage. My singing expressed itself as weak, breathy, and forced. As anyone with a voice disorder can relate, stress frequently makes your voice worsen. Yet, I was with Mike to get help, and I was ready to do most anything to assist Mike in helping me.

Over the next hour Mike worked with me in various ways. First I was on a special side to side undulation machine to move the energy throughout my body. Afterwards I felt a difference in my legs, but not much anywhere else. We repeated the gentle machine therapy at the end of the entire session that day, and I felt the energy flowing all through my legs, trunk and arms. This was quite a remarkable change. After the initial side-undulation therapy I then moved to the massage table, where Mike verbally instructed and physically directed my inhalations to where I specifically needed them. This created such a new sensation in my body of deeper, fuller, more greatly expanded breaths. A wonderful start! My body had so much more energy flowing through it immediately.

The next step was to stand and learn to bring my breath low into my pelvis and use it from there saying ‘hah’. From this point I then used the newly expanded and deepened breath to sing. Oh! What a difference! And yes, there were habits that I needed to work out, but always with Mike’s gentle, persistent, encouraging guidance. While I was singing Mike worked on the blockages along my back, sometimes with pressure applied at specific points, other times by opening my shoulders/thorax so the breath had free clearance. At one point I was so happily overwhelmed with the resonance, strength, and ease of my voice that I stopped singing and proclaimed to my newfound Breathing Coach "You are a genius". I had never in my life up to that point experienced such vocal freedom, resonance, clarity and ease. What I had been told were permanent voice problems that I needed to work around, or bear with, are essentially mechanical faults in the coordination of my breathing.

I then built upon this success with learning to sing ‘in an arc’. With this technique one can speak across a football field without strain. I was in awe as to how my voice could perform....how far it could reach. The hour long session was exhausting, having to deal with old breathing habits, and the emotional ‘stuff’ that accompanies sub-optimal breathing patterns. Mike is well prepared and has wonderful direct ways of getting right through all of this while keeping the honor/respect of the client well intact.

Would I refer someone to Michael Grant White, ‘The Breathing Coach’? With no hesitation. You see, I am a Chiropractic Physician....and I am in touch with the body, its energy, blockages, and releases from a chiropractic standpoint. I have had many years experience working with positive changes in patients’ bodies. Since we breathe continually day in and day out the accumulative effects of sub-optimal breathing is very draining on the body-mind, yet on the other hand, the accumulative effects of OPTIMAL BREATHING are wonderfully regenerative to this same body-mind. Which would you prefer for yourself? I know now that it is through OPTIMAL BREATHING that I have the KEY to unlocking the potential in my voice and many areas of my life. Louise Cash, DC, Asheville NC.

Adductor types  (From Mike)
I strongly suspect SD to be a mechanical issue correctable by mechanical means. I do not believe that genetics can influence it beyond one's own self determinism.  If the person is mindful enough to make the change, spirit will prevail.  

We must of course have already opened up (via Optimal Breath Releases - OBRs and strapping techniques, and others etc) the entire system to make the maximum change possible and ensure success. We then take the odd, sometimes threatening, invasive, distasteful (the prima donna pose, grotesque or foreign and possibly threatening body distortions etc) body positions and allow the breathing balance and sequencing to find it's own way by making sound concurrently with that "different" body positions. This happens often enough and the body reforms internally (unwinds) allowing the new way of sounding to become spontaneous while the ODD body position becomes less and less needed and we slowly revert back to healthy posturing and fuller easier stronger balanced breathing. The precise body positions are critical.

STUTTERING
Is almost identical in characteristic to SD. The more you expand the lung volume, un-gnarl the internal balance and sequencing and strengthen the speaking support system, the less people stutter. Pure and simple.

LARYNGITIS
We know that gold collects in the bends of a river. So do germs and bacteria collect in the bends and twists of the inside of the windpipe and throat. So when we untwist and open those passages we allow the cellular and bacterial debris to move freely and away. We also reduce the tendency of that material to collect as it did before.

SD seems to have several components such as self image, posture, diaphragm size and strength, diet, environment, erratic trunk, neck and pelvic muscular tensions going every which way, stress, patience and perseverance. Optimal breathing establishes and maintains a foundation of exhaled air flow of evenness and stability.  Then that which is above the breathing foundation including the mechanics of voicing can be fully and properly developed. With an optimal foundation comes sustainable progress. Without a proper foundation comes inconsistency, failure, Botox and surgery.

So I "fish" for what might be the more relevant of factors and then choose the ones that need the most attention because some are less important then others.  Then one needs enough time to address what one discovers.  Relaxation is one of the MOST important but stress seems to beckon as a "necessity" for many.  They forget they have a choice. Extreme lifestyle changes are mandatory for many less their ship hit the rocks.  Breathing should be the first aspect to address for most. Voice quality problems that had resisted drugs and nutrition for months to years have improved or disappeared within hours to weeks using Optimal Breathing Techniques.  

I must respectfully decline our product recommendations for SD as I know how "tricky" it can be and I do not want ANYONE lost to failure using any of my techniques. There IS a way to eliminate SD. I am presently working with a speech language pathologist to create a program in Florida around eliminating SD, once and for all. 
An important link for SD  

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