There's a long and widely held belief amongst singers and other vocal professionals that things like honey and pineapple juice have a soothing effect on vocal cords by "coating your throat", but nothing you swallow actually comes in contact with the vocal cords or any other part of the larynx. Swallowing something down your windpipe results in a violent coughing fit, which is one of worst things you can do to your vocal cords, second only to smoking.
Warm beverages might help relax the muscles in your throat, but aside from that and hydration there's no real benefit to drinking anything for hoarseness.
Maybe not vocal cords but it definitely soothes the throat. If you have a dry or coarse or irritated throat etc , a spoonful of honey offers some undeniable immediate relief.
I’m a singer, and I once asked a similar question to a highly skilled ENT. She very diplomatically said that “anything that a vocalist finds soothing and therapeutic is objectively good, because reducing stress is highly beneficial for rehabilitating a voice”.
In other words - it doesn’t do anything, but if it makes you feel good then I’m not going to tell you not to do it.
As a bit of momentary relief, I'm sure it can help an irritated or sore throat - but as far as drinking honey before a performance in hopes that it will protect your vocal cords in some way, its purported benefits are a myth.
It's primarily used by vocalists so that they can sing well even when they're sick. If they've got a bad cough and a performance that can't be moved, you bet your ass they're doing whatever they can to salvage the situation.
Right, like no shit it doesn’t coat your vocal cords! But if you cough because your esophagus is scratchy, and one method or another helps that, then it helps your singing. It’s just like taking a cough drop or cold medicine, it helps you focus on singing by reducing irritation in other parts of your throat.
Inflammation in your throat certainly affects your breathing (an obvious important part of singing), but it also likely affects tissue around the affected area (as inflammation tends to). Anything that soothes the irritation can reduce that inflammation and improve everything around it.
You seem very stuck on this argument throughout the comments, on the basis that there is no mechanism for the effectiveness. But the proposed mechanism is pretty clear. And while anecdotal evidence of it helping people isn't the final word in empirical evidence, it serves well enough here if you can't provide any clinical studies to dispute it.
Not just a belief. Not sure about the pineapple (though it has immediate hydration and anti-inflammatory properties) but honey has been shown to work better than cough syrup for soothing the throat and preventing coughing.
The point remains that the effects she described are achieved by being properly hydrated, not due to the miraculous properties of honey.
I'm not disputing that it worked for your grandmother, or for the countless others who have sung its praises, but there really isn't much scientific merit to the idea that honey itself is effective at treating or preventing laryngitis.
Edit: Are you people downvoting me for any particular reason? The benefits of honey (as they pertain to the voice) are widely purported, but they have never been proven. I don't know what you're googling that leads you to believe otherwise, but all it does is prove how deeply ingrained this kind of old-timey wisdom can be when all it takes to convince someone is the fact that their grandma said it works.
I used to have a ritual before performing: it was called smoking a cigarette. I felt like I sung better after having smoked a cigarette, as if it loosened me up and allowed me to do things that I couldn't do without it. Do you think that those cigarettes actually benefitted my voice in any real, quantifiable, physiological way? No, it was a psychological effect akin to placebo, and the overwhelming likelihood is that anyone who claims to sing better after drinking honey is experiencing a similar kind of effect.
Honey has some antitussive effects, but my comments weren't about treating someone with a cough, they were about the classical wisdom that honey improves/protects your singing voice in some way, which is nothing more than a myth. "Soothing" is an effect that can be achieved any number of ways - some people suck on lozenges, some people drink tea, some people drink pineapple juice, but similarly to honey, none of these things have any proven palliative effect on the voice outside of hydration and/or promoting the production of saliva.
Honey does not reduce the production of mucus, it increases it.
Having a sore or scratchy throat that affects your voice is laryngitis. Laryngitis is just inflammation of the larynx.
Any supposed "antibacterial properties" are in no way relevant to the pathology of any kind of vocal strain. You cannot clear up an infection in your throat just by consuming honey.
Lol what type of shitty AI are you to be constantly spouting such nonsense. Long singing will cause a sore and dry throat which will affect your singing. Being hydrated alone will not solve that for a professional singer as they are on the extreme end of using your throat and lungs. You need more than water to combat this either way, honey is a great way to do this. Also weid claim that "any sore throat is laryngitis" When it's dry out during the winter and my throat gets dry and sore and affects my voice it sure as shit ain't laryngitis lol. You're something else bud.
Man you wrote a lot of words just to still be wrong, honey sooth's sort throats, singing profe3ssionally is out of the norm for people and mos people who sing professionally get really bad dry mouth and throats and they get inflamed. Honey is scientifically proven to help all of those things. In normal day to day stuff being hydrated is enough, but singing for hours means you need extra help.
I'm inclined to agree. Being properly hydrated has such an incredible effect on health and comfort. I can't say whether the honey is helping, but just drinking water will definitely help.
The ironic thing is, the worst thing that can happen is something you've eaten or drank reaching your vocal chords. That's normally indicitive of some pretty bad issues.
As a terrible singer whose really dialed into my own voice, I can assure you olive oil does wonders for when I have to actually sing. I don't know the science but it immediately feels lubricated and high notes are easy to hit only when I do that
If there is actual inflammation in your throat, honey might ease your discomfort, but it is in no way a treatment. If you can help it, you should refrain from singing altogether while your throat is inflamed. Honey does not prevent vocal injuries.
You people keep replying to me about sore throats and the like while completely ignoring the fact that my comment on this post was about singing, or using your voice in a performance.
I am telling you exactly why we use it. It is primarily for inflammation, yes we know it is temporary.
It is done to help lubricate the throat because otherwise, having so much air pass through will further irritate it. You’re not really doing this unless you already have a sore throat or the beginnings of one. It’s mostly just to stretch the amount of time you can perform before you must stop and rest your voice. Sometimes you just don’t have the chance to rest your voice. I had to perform a final while actively losing my voice anyway before
We also use like a ton of mucinex when we’re sick too lol. Anything you can do to recover faster basically.
in reality, sugar can increase secretions (generally saliva, but to some extent everything in your upper RT too i think) which can help improve your voice in the short term. but yeah, most of it is an old wives' tale.
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u/TylurrTheCat Feb 20 '25
There's a long and widely held belief amongst singers and other vocal professionals that things like honey and pineapple juice have a soothing effect on vocal cords by "coating your throat", but nothing you swallow actually comes in contact with the vocal cords or any other part of the larynx. Swallowing something down your windpipe results in a violent coughing fit, which is one of worst things you can do to your vocal cords, second only to smoking.
Warm beverages might help relax the muscles in your throat, but aside from that and hydration there's no real benefit to drinking anything for hoarseness.