Almost everyone … hiccup … has a certain involuntary … hiccup … spasm from time to time. For most people, hiccups usually go away within a few minutes, and we don’t give them another thought. But what actually causes these inconvenient … hiccup … musclecontractions? Here’s everything you ever needed to know about hiccups — including several efficient techniques to get rid of them.
THE LONGEST CASE OF HICCUPS WAS HOW LONG?
A case of hiccups usually lasts minutes to a few hours, and it even can drag on for a day or two. But some episodes can turn into chronic hiccups, lingering for months or even years. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, “Hiccups that persist over a period of time may cause exhaustion and weight loss from lack of sleep and the interruption of normal eating patterns.”
The longest case recorded of chronic hiccups lasted a whopping 68 years, according to BBC News. As the story goes, an Iowa man named Charles Osborne was weighing a pig when he fell. He told People in 1982 that a doctor said he had burst a blood vessel in his brain, and later a doctor informed him he had “destroyed a small area in the brain stem that inhibits the hiccup response.”
Despite hiccuping an estimated 420 million times throughout those years, Osborne lived a relatively normal life, holding various jobs, marrying and having children. He learned techniques to manage his hiccups, including strategic breathing and blending his meals to make the food go down easier.
So what exactly was happening in Osborne’s body — and to the rest of us who get much less severe cases of hiccups?
WHAT ARE HICCUPS ANYWAY?
In generations past, people used to believe hiccups meant you were growing, according to Cleveland Clinic. But today, we know it’s simply a muscle spasm. “Hiccups are involuntary contractions of the diaphragm — the muscle that separates your chest from your abdomen and plays an important role in breathing,” Mayo Clinic says. “Each contraction is followed by a sudden closure of your vocal cords, which produces the characteristic ‘hic’ sound.”
Your brain directs the diaphragm’s movement by sending signals down nerves. In the case of a hiccup, the brain tells “the diaphragm to shift forcefully downward, suddenly pulling a lot of air into the back of the throat,” according to Harvard Health Publishing. Scientists don’t actually know why the brain sends such a signal, but we do know there are several factors that can cause hiccups.
COMMON HICCUP TRIGGERS
According to Mayo Clinic, the most common triggers for temporary hiccups (not the kind that last 68 years) include:
- Drinking carbonated beverages or alcohol
- Eating too much
- Excitement, stress or other heightened emotions
- A sudden temperature change
- Swallowing too much air
Long-term hiccups have more obvious connections to nerve damage or irritation. Tumors, cysts, gastroesophageal reflux and even a sore throat all can irritate the vagus and phrenic nerves, which control the diaphragm. Furthermore, metabolic disorders and central nervous system disease or damage can affect your body’s hiccup reflex, as Osborne’s case demonstrated.
Scientists still aren’t sure what exactly the value of hiccups is to the body. But Cleveland Clinic says, “In the womb, hiccups may be a programmed exercise of the lungs to help with breathing.” So we likely have more to learn about why our bodies trigger hiccups.
HOW TO GET RID OF HICCUPS
Thankfully, most of the time hiccups go away on their own. But if you want to expedite that process, there are many home remedies you can try — though some seem to have no basis in science besides being a distraction tactic.
One of the most common techniques to stop hiccups is simply holding your breath, which helps to relax the diaphragm. Mayo Clinic also suggests breathing into a paper bag, gargling with ice water and sipping cool water, as well as limiting portion size and carbonated beverages. Plus, some alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, might help.
Per Harvard Health, even more unconventional methods include pulling on your tongue, swallowing a spoonful of sugar and biting a lemon. You even can enlist someone to try to scare the hiccups out of you or distract you with a good joke.
Consult your doctor if your hiccups are becoming chronic and no self-treatment method is working, as it might be a sign of an underlying condition — unless, of course, you want to go for that hiccup world record.
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