Vocalist.org archive


From:  "Dre de Man" <dredeman@y...>
"Dre de Man" <dredeman@y...>
Date:  Sat Jan 13, 2001  3:40 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] singing and health (and weight)


Dear co-vocalisters,

there is one hormonal thing, that relates to weight, c.q.fat: fat tends to
absorb testosterone (male hormones) and as far as I know also it's female
counterpart. So a man who is fat during his puberty might end up with smaller
vocal cords than his thinner counterpart. There is also a syndrome concerning
women / girls that are very fat during puberty: I don't remember it exactly,
but those girls suffer from more than just a voice that is slightly higher, in
general from a hormonal unbalance.
With normal women it looks like a chicken or egg question (forgive me the
comparison): more oestrogen means more fat, so women with lot of oestrogen (so
mostly a higher voice) might give the impression, that their high voice is a
consequence of their extra thermal insulation, whereas in reality both are
consequences of the high oestrogen level.

Losing a lot of weight will change your hormone levels, but I doubt that this
has any effect on the voice. The biggest hormonal change you can image, happens
when women get pregnant (more than 1000x the effect of even a 'heavy' (modern)
anti-conception pill, so much about the effect of the pill on singing), and I
don't know any professional singer who lost her voice after getting a baby. A
last warning is about losing weight very fast: fat not only absorbs hormones,
but also all kind of unhealthy chemicals, so it can become dangerous.

P.S. How do I know this? A dr.med.-friend of mine, who knows me quite well,
lended me one of her books, about hormones and sexuality. For those who get
curious now: there is no clear relation between female hormone levels and
libido, so the suggestion that a low female voice belongs to a women that is
very much interested in sex, is not necessarily right. And as we know from
various tenors, a higher male voice does not necessarily belong to a man with
an average or less than average libido.
Almost no research has ever been done about the relation between hormones and
characters. Needless to say, that my personal hypothesis, that hormonal levels
change both voice and characters, exactly according to the German Fach System,
has never been tested.

Best greetings,

Dré





  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
8348 Re: singing and health (and weight) Claudia Ribeiro   Sun  1/14/2001   2 KB
8353 Re: singing and health (and weight) Dre de Man   Sun  1/14/2001   3 KB
8356 Re: singing and health (and weight) Lee Morgan   Mon  1/15/2001   3 KB
8359 Re: singing and health (and weight) Isabelle Bracamonte   Mon  1/15/2001   2 KB
8377 Re: singing and health (and weight) Lee Morgan   Mon  1/15/2001   3 KB
8360 Re: singing and health (and weight) Cynthia Donnell   Mon  1/15/2001   3 KB
8378 Re: singing and health (and weight) Lee Morgan   Mon  1/15/2001   2 KB
8367 Re: singing and health (and weight) John Messmer, M.D.   Mon  1/15/2001   5 KB
8406 Re: singing and health (and weight) Reg Boyle   Mon  1/15/2001   2 KB

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