A Drexel doctor’s tips to avoid losing your voice at the Super Bowl

With the Super Bowl approaching, a Drexel vocal health expert wants Philadelphia Eagles fans to cheer for their team as loud as they can — without losing their voices.

Robert Sataloff, the chair of Drexel’s ear, nose, and throat department and senior associate dean at Drexel’s College of Medicine, is a longtime Eagles fan and a professional opera singer and conductor.

People who use their voices for a living — everyone from singers to sports announcers — know how to use chest, back, and abdominal muscles to ease the strain on their vocal cords or folds, thin muscles in the throat that vibrate to produce your voice.

“Amateurs who don’t know how to do that use muscles in the neck that are not designed for power functions. They create excessive stress and injure the vocal folds,” Sataloff said. “Voices are fragile; they’re complicated.”

Too much strain on the vocal cords can cause hemorrhage or masses on the tissues, Sataloff said.

So what can a fandom famous for their raucous vocal performances do to protect their voices on the NFL’s biggest stage?

In an ideal world, we’d all get voice lessons. “But people don’t have time to do that before the big game,” Sataloff said.

Eagles fans can prepare for the game by warming up their voices before they head to the stadium. “Gently sing ‘Happy Birthday’ a couple times, really softly, before you leave the house, just as you’d stretch a bit before you go out to run five miles,” Sataloff said. Presumably, a quiet rendition of the Eagles fight song would also work for a warm-up.

Earplugs can help block out some of the noise a fan might try to shout over. They will also make their voices sound louder to them — so they’re less likely to strain their voices yelling to be heard. It’s a trick that works whether you’re watching the game in the Caesars Superdome or in a noisy South Philly sports bar.

Fans should also “change pitch a little bit, so they’re yelling as a baritone one minute and as a tenor another,” Sataloff said.

When fans feel their voice starting to tire, they should take a break. “They should be silent for five minutes, talk softly, and see if their voice goes back to normal. Then get back in the game,” Sataloff said. “If their voice isn’t back to normal, they ought to keep it down.”

Fans who plan to cheer on Broad Street when (yes, when) the Birds win should be even more protective of their vocal folds, which are more vulnerable to damage in cold, dry weather.

Sataloff recommends wearing a mask outside to breathe in more humid air, and drinking lots of water.

“People should stay very well hydrated, preferably with a six-pack of water rather than a six-pack of Schlitz, before they go out and start yelling. And that’s whether you’re inside or outside,” Sataloff said.

A voice that goes hoarse and stays that way might be a sign of a vocal hemorrhage. That’s a cue to visit an ear, nose, and throat doctor to ensure no permanent damage has occurred.

Voices are more crucial to day-to-day life than most think, Sataloff said. Factory workers, for example, shout over loud machinery. Sports coaches, from beer leagues to the big leagues, have to make themselves heard from the sidelines.

“You don’t appreciate your voice until you lose it, and losing it is a big quality-of-life issue,” Sataloff said.

For his part, Sataloff can no longer chance a full-volume E-A-G-L-E-S chant. He had surgery for thyroid cancer several years ago that damaged his vocal cords. Now cancer-free, he’s had eight operations to fix the damage, some of them using surgical techniques he invented.

“It’s a little ironic, but educational. I learned a lot about being a voice patient from being a voice patient,” he said. Still, he recalls with fondness the days when he was able to let loose at Eagles games or perform an opera piece.

“I could yell forever, be heard better than other people, and not get hoarse — but that’s because I have years and years of training,” Sataloff said.

Everyone else can stand to exercise a little caution when screaming to the skies, he says. “At Eagles games, weddings, parties, rock concerts — people tend to do things with their voices that they’re not designed to do,” he said. “It’s worth it for people to learn how to use their voice.”