Today we are in the company of Laryngology Royalty, who during the Covid 19 pandemic helped coordinate research on the perceived dangers of aerosols and singing. He is a singer himself and today is stationed at Wexham Park Hospital in Berkshire as a consultant nose and throat surgeon specialising in voice disorders, welcome to Singing Teachers’ Talk, Declan Costello.
KEY TAKEAWAYS

Pollen allergies have been quite rife this year and many have experienced symptoms for longer, and that's said to be related to climate change. The issue is that when you have an allergy you develop a reaction that causes the lining of the nose and the lining of the throat to swell.
If somebody is coming into our studios with an allergy and they sound a little bit nasal, if the problem is really isolated to the nose and irritation, by and large it's okay to carry on singing.
The concern is if somebody's got an audible difference in their voice. If their voice is husky or if they've got difficulty with their range, then that makes you worry that maybe the vocal cords themselves are swollen.
If you are keen to know precisely what you're allergic to, then there are various blood tests and other kinds of tests that you can do to know exactly what it is you should be avoiding. Most people who have hay fever are allergic to a whole number of things. So it's not just a single allergen.

BEST MOMENTS
‘General hay fever and stuffiness wouldn't necessarily mean I would suggest stopping singing’
‘Colds are viral. They will do what they're gonna do’
‘We didn't go into it in order to open up singing again. We had to go into it completely dispassionately and saying, we don't know what the dangers are’
EPISODE RESOURCES
Guest Website:

voicedoctor.co.uk

Social Media:

Twitter: @Voicedoctor_uk

Relevant Links & Mentions:

Neil Med Nasal Rinse: https://www.neilmed.com/unk/
Sterimar: https://www.sterimarnasal.co.uk/
Advised Nasal Spray: Dymista

 
ABOUT THE GUEST
Declan Costello is a consultant ear, nose and throat surgeon specialising in voice disorders (a laryngologist).  He studied music at St John's College,Cambridge, where he was a choral scholar, and went on to study medicine at Imperial College. As a singer himself, he has a particular interest in treating voice disorders in performers. Having worked for ten years in Birmingham as a consultant, he moved to Wexham Park Hospital in Berkshire in 2018. He has published a number of books and has written many chapters, including the chapter on "Larynx" for the 42nd edition of "Gray's Anatomy”. In the middle of 2020, at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, he helped to coordinate research on the perceived dangers of singing and aerosols. This research led to the UK government opening up performing after a prolonged period of enforced silence. 
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