Usha Manjunatha
Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India
Biography
Usha M, Speec​​h Language Pathologist currently pursuing PhD final year in Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India. I have completed my graduation in Speech and Hearing, and Post graduation in Speech Language Pathology form All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, India in 2015. I am a certified yoga practitioner and my area of interest being Voice & its Disorders, currently working on a Department of Science and Technology project – “Effects of Yoga and Pranayama on voice”. Also working in the field of voice rehabilitation for professional voice users with hyperfunctional voice disorders. I have got three international publications in this field and have presented more research works in national and international conferences and symposiums. Also have delivered talks on importance of Yoga-Pranayama and its therapeutic effects in the field of Speech and Hearing.
Abstract
Voice plays a major role in communication and is a multidimensional entity which reveals the speaker’s physical, emotional health, personality and identity. There are certain groups of people who are dependent on their voice for their livelihood and are called as professional voice users. A small change or deviation in their voice can interfere their career. As per the literature survey, professional voice users are at the maximum risk of developing hyperfunctional voice disorders due to their vocal usage and demand in their profession(1).
Yoga and pranayama which are nothing but postures and breathing techniques gaining a lot of attention in the field of health science(2). These are used for the therapeutic managements of many disorders and its efficacy has been documented. Breathing techniques like surya bedha pranayama helps in aerating the lungs efficiently and makes the availability of the oxygen level to a greater extent(3). Ocean wave breathing or Ujjayi pranayama helps in the maximum expansion of the lungs, increasing the usage of the lung volume. Also many techniques help in reducing anxiety, hyperactivity, laziness, appetite, and thirst(4). One of the pranayama technique which includes voicing and humming during breathing “Brahmari pranayama” has been proved to improve the voice quality in terms of acoustic characters(5).
Since respiration is the source for voice production, good lung capacity and inspiratory-expiratory ratio is very important in producing a good voice quality, a very famous and well proved breathing technique named Ujjayi pranayama or ocean wave breathing is evaluated in this current study. Twenty female Speech Language Therapists after an hour of vocal usage were made to perform this technique. Parameters of aerodynamic, acoustic and self perceptual were analyzed for pre and post practice.