Can Lyme disease affect the voice? Singer Shania Twain opens up about her ordeal with the disease

Singer Shania Twain recently opened up about her battle with Lyme disease and how the illness was fatal to her career. In her new Netflix documentary, Not Just A Girl, Twain revealed her experience of contracting Lyme disease and how it altered her voice to some extent.

She said:

"Before I was diagnosed, I was on stage very dizzy... I was losing my balance, I was afraid I was gonna fall off the stage."

Opening up on the symptoms, the 56-year-old singer noted that she would have "very, very, very millisecond blackouts, but regularly, every minute or every 30 seconds."

Twain was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 2003 after an infected tick bit her while she was horseback riding in Norfolk, Virginia.

Shania Twain also noted that the chronic illness made her develop dysphonia due to which she temporarily lost her voice. She then added that her voice "was never the same again."

"I thought I’d lost my voice forever. I thought that was it, [and] I would never, ever sing again."

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What is Lyme disease? Exploring Shania Twain's symptoms

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lyme disease is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged ticks. This disease can spread to the joints, heart, and the nervous system.

The disease can initially be diagnosed through symptoms like fever, headache, extreme fatigue, joint aches, swollen lymph nodes, and rashes or ticks that grow over time. More severe symptoms that develop at later stages include headache, facial palsy, extreme arthritis, heart palpitations, and episodes of dizziness.

According to Mayo Clinic, Lyme disease can cause damage to the vocal cords since the inflammation can directly affect the voice box. Vocal cord paralysis develops when the nerves in the voice box are damaged, further disrupting the nerve impulses.

This ongoing condition that Twain has reported can make it difficult for the patient to speak, breathe, or produce sounds. According to Mayo Clinic, this condition can also lead the patient to choke while swallowing food, making it difficult for the patient to speak loudly.

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Further updates on Shania Twain's health condition

During her interview on the British talk show Loose Women, Shania Twain opened up about being in treatment for years before she could understand that it was Lyme disease that affected her voice and ability to sing. Shania Twain noted:

"There was a long time I thought I would never sing again... It took years to get to the bottom of what was affecting my voice. I would say probably a good seven years before a doctor was able to find out that it was nerve damage to my vocal cords directly caused by Lyme disease."

During one of Shania Twain's interviews with The Sun, the You're Still The One singer said that she "felt devastated" due to the disease and its impact on her vocal abilities. She stated:

"I also felt that I was never going to make another album — that was probably my truth. It was devastating. I really grieved about that. It did bring me down and I struggled with it every day."

Opening up further, Shania revealed how her "first love," aka "writing," kept her spirits alive when she wasn't able to sing or perform for her fans due to the disease. She said:

"It was very depressing, and I was really sad about it, but I still had my writing, and my writing is my first love, really, over everything. I was only going to be a writer and not the performer."

Following the release of the new Netflix documentary, Shania Twain has released "a collection of all the songs in the documentary" for her fans, named Not Just A Girl - The Highlights.