I’m sure at some point in your life you have gotten those annoying hiccups that you aren’t quite sure how to get rid of. We try scaring people who have them, standing on our heads, drinking water, and holding our breath. However, none of these strategies seem to work and the hiccups usually just go away on their own. In this blog post I will provide the scientific definition for what hiccups are, and then will go on to explain why they occur. Hiccups as defined on dictionary.com are “an unintentional movement (spasm) of the diaphragm, the muscle at the base of the lungs. The spasm is followed by quick closing of the vocal cords, which produces a distinctive sound.” The quick spasms that occur in our diaphragms are very unpleasant and unwanted. I know that when I have the hiccups I am extremely uncomfortable; sometimes hiccups can even hurt and irritate the chest area. In my research I have read that in most cases hiccups occur after eating or drinking excessively or too quickly. Our stomach is directly under the diaphragm and when we eat or drink too much or too fast the stomach becomes aggravated. When our stomach is irritated the diaphragm will begin contracting like it also does when we breathe. Hiccups can also occur if our nerve pathways from our brains to our muscles are disturbed. This clarifies why scaring someone unexpectedly can rid of the hiccups. Holding your breath is a good way to get rid of hiccups because this increases carbon dioxide in our lungs, which in turn relaxes the diaphragm and gets rid of the spasms that occur within it. I agree with this study because they have at times worked for me, especially holding my breath. Recently I have been getting the hiccups quite often and when I hold my breath or have a drink of water, they typically go away in a shorter period of time than if not doing such actions. Sometimes we hiccup for a very short period of time in a statistic of hiccups it stated, “If they stop before the seventh or so, you’re in luck because that’s the end of them. If they last longer than seven, then the odds are good that you are in it for the duration. On average, you typically will hiccup 65 times or more. The hiccup record is currently at 68 years according to Guinness World Records. Besides the reasons I have already stated for the cause of hiccups it really varies and the actual cause is debatable, and in some cases unknown. There are many ways people have tried curing hiccups however they do not always work. Hiccups are just something that is bound to happen, and although they are extremely annoying they’re apart of life and something we are unable to control.
“Why Do We Get Hiccups?” Zidbits Learn Something New Everyday. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
Medical News Today. MediLexicon International, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.
I agree, having hiccups is so annoying especially when they come unexpected and you can’t talk or focus. I found this really cool story on MNT, “According to Guinness World Records, the record for hiccupping continuously is held by Charles Osborne (1892-1991), from Anthon, Iowa, USA. He hiccupped continuously for 68 years, from 1922 to 1990While Osborne was preparing to slaughter a 300-pound hog in 1922, the animal collapsed on top of him – and so began his decades of non-stop hiccupping. He had one “hic” every ten seconds for the next 68 years.Experts speculate that either a blood vessel in his brain which controlled an abdomen muscle popped, or that muscle was pulled. Osborne underwent several operations to cure his hiccups – all of them failed. He died on May 1st 1991 from complications from ulcers. His hiccups had stopped one year earlier in 1990.” Furthermore, a hiccup occurs when the diaphragm contracts involuntarily, while at the same time the larynx contracts too and the glottis closes, blocking the flow of air.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9896.php