Sore throat soothers: losing your voice? Throat feeling a little raw? Keep them both healthy with the following natural tips for stressed vocal cords.

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Whether you're a professional singer, speaker, or teacher, or you just cheer too loudly at ball games, voice overuse can make you hoarse. It's painful, annoying, and can even cause permanent vocal cord damage if not treated properly.

"It is possible for someone to permanently damage their voice if they do not seek help for a sore throat or overuse of their voice," says Steven E. Davis, MD, an ear, nose, and throat specialist based in Los Angeles. According to Davis, an infection or cold can also cause a sore throat or laryngitis. In fact, sore throats have innumerable causes, including bacteria, viruses, allergies, postnasal drip, and even acid reflux.

Whatever the cause of your pain, it is important to rest the voice. In some cases, just one episode of yelling can damage vocal cords.

"This kind of injury is likely to be a kind of small blood blister that forms on the vocal cords," says Davis. "Long-term voice misuse can cause nodules to form. The voice box has many small and delicate muscles attached to it, and they can be strained and injured just like any other muscle in the body." In this case, Davis recommends a kind of "physical therapy" for the voice, provided by a speech therapist specializing in the professional voice.

Simple Ways to Save Your Voice

Davis says that for any type of sore throat, there are also some at-home throat soothers you can try before visiting a doctor. "I'm a big believer in a minimalist approach at first," he says.