The effect of fish oil supplementation on the voice of female professional voice users - Project Summary Professional voice users, people who need their voice to be consistent and appealing to do their job, often experience vocal fatigue that can impact their ability to do their job and lead to more serious voice problems. The laryngeal changes associated with vocal fatigue are not fully understood, but small-scale studies have found increases in inflammatory biomarkers following a vocally fatiguing task. As such, professional voice users and researchers have been looking for safe methods to reduce vocal fold inflammation in response to voice overuse. Omega-3 (o3) polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) supplementation presents a promising option due to the success of this supplement in reducing inflammation following exercise in other body systems of athletes. The aims of this project are to 1) determine the impact and feasibility of an intervention using omega- 3 PUFA supplementation or a placebo on recovery from a vocal loading task, and 2) the impact of that same intervention on vocal fold markers related to inflammation, specifically, interleukin-6, interleukin-10, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. We propose a parallel group-randomized controlled trial in which cis-gender, pre- menopausal females over the age of 18 will be assigned to take either 3.0 grams of omega-3 PUFAs/day or 3.0 grams of placebo/day for 10 weeks. We will measure the effects of the intervention as it relates to changes experienced in the vocal mechanism due to a vocal loading task. Our multidisciplinary collaborative, including undergraduate students from multiple majors, speech-language pathologists, laryngologists, physiologists, dieticians, biomedical researchers, and elite vocal performers puts us in an advantageous position to accomplish these aims. This work not only provides the much-needed large-scale dataset examining laryngeal biomarker changes in humans under conditions of vocal fatigue, but it also presents a novel and natural method for addressing vocal fold inflammation before it develops into a long-term voice disorder.
