What Causes Hiccups?

Question

What causes hiccups? and what are your best tips for getting rid of them?

Answer 1

Too much air. We usually get hiccups when we are excited or after exercise, this is because we find it harder to breathe so we gasp for air. This causes us to take in too much air which makes us hiccup. At least, that's what I've always been told.
A good cure is for you to block your ears with your index fingers and your nose with your little fingers and get somebody else to feed you water. Take a few good gulps and after you should be OK.

Answer 2

Hiccups are gulping sounds caused by involuntary spasms of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is the muscle that separates the chest and abdomen and helps with breathing. Hiccups can be triggered if you eat too much or too fast, consume very hot or cold foods and beverages, or drink carbonated beverages. Other causes include cold showers, entering or leaving a hot or cold room, sudden excitement, and stress.
Hiccups are not a serious medical condition and usually disappear on their own within a few minutes. If they last longer than 24 hours, hiccups may be a sign of another condition or injury. You should see your health care provider if you experience prolonged hiccuping.

Home remedies are usually the primary treatment for hiccups, although no one is really sure how well they work. Hiccup home remedies include sneezing, being suddenly frightened, holding your breath, gargling, drinking pineapple juice, drinking water rapidly, sipping ice water, or swallowing dry granulated sugar. These activities may help by altering breathing patterns.

Doctors may recommend prescription medicines to treat hiccups that last longer than a day. Drugs that may help include Thorazine (generic name chlorpromazine), Lioresal (baclofen), Reglan (metoclopramide), Depakote (valproic acid), and Procardia (nifedipine). Researchers believe that these medicines work by affecting nerves in the diaphragm that are involved in causing spasms.

Answer 3

Hi:

"Wonder where these funny noises are coming from? The part to blame is your diaphragm (say: die-uh-fram). This is a dome-shaped muscle at the bottom of your chest, and all hiccups start here."

"Holding your breath and counting to 10 is one way some people can get rid of their hiccups. Other people say that drinking from the "wrong" side of a glass of water is the way to become hiccup-free. Putting sugar under your tongue might work, too. And maybe the most famous treatment - having someone jump out and scare you when you're not expecting it - helps some people wave good-bye to their hiccups. Boo!"

Hope, this helps.

>>> Naveen Kumar

Answer 4

In my old age, I've found they start when I've eaten all I should! They are spasmotic contraction of the diaphram, so anything that irritates the nerves of the diaphram may start a spell of hiccups. Also there is a nerve in the brain that may set them off, to go on for hours. Cures are as varied as the causes, but the one I've lately discovered on Answers board is to stick my fingers in my ears. Can't imagine why it works....but it does!

Answer 5

IT has something to do with your diaghram moving normally, then some air gets trapped and your hiccups is the air coming out.

Answer 6

A hiccup or hiccough (generally pronounced "HICK-cup" independent of the spelling) is an involuntary spasm of the diaphragm; typically this repeats several times a minute. The sudden rush of air into the lungs causes the glottis to close, creating the "hic" listen (help·info) noise. A bout of hiccups generally resolves by itself, although many home remedies are in circulation to shorten the duration, and medication is occasionally necessary. By extension, the term "hiccup" is also used to describe a small and unrepeated aberration in an otherwise consistent pattern. The medical term is singultus. The term singultus is becoming more popular as this condition is being recognized as a significant performance issue in the 21st century, with an increased emphasis on human communications.

While many cases develop spontaneously, hiccups are known to develop often in specific situations, such as eating too quickly, taking a cold drink while eating a hot meal, eating very hot or spicy food, laughing vigorously or coughing, drinking an excess of an alcoholic beverage, or electrolyte imbalance. Hiccups may be caused by pressure to the phrenic nerve by other anatomical structures, or rarely by tumors and certain kidney disease. It is reported that 30% of chemotherapy patients suffer singultus as a side effect to treatment.

It is still unclear to scientists exactly why hiccups occur, particularly because it doesn't seem to give us any specific benefit. Some speculation exists that hiccups are a remnant of a bodily function that has been phased out by evolution, such as the move from aquatic gilled creatures to land animals. Ultrasounds have also shown that unborn fetuses experience hiccups. Some suggested hypotheses include hiccups as a possible muscle exercise for the child's respiratory system prior to birth or as a preventive measure to keep amniotic fluid from entering the lungs.
Medical treatment
Referred to as singultus, hiccups are treated medically only in severe and persistent (termed "intractable") cases. Haloperidol (Haldol, an anti-psychotic and sedative), metoclopramide (Reglan, a gastrointestinal stimulant), and chlorpromazine (Thorazine, an anti-psychotic with strong sedative effects) are used in cases of intractable hiccups. In severe or resistant cases, baclofen (an anti-spasmodic) is sometimes required to suppress hiccups. Effective treatment with sedatives often requires a dose that either renders the person unconscious or highly lethargic. Hence, medicating singultus is done short-term and is not a situation where the affected individual could continue with normal life activities while taking the medication.

Persistent and intractable hiccups due to electrolyte imbalance (hypokalemia, hyponatremia) may benefit from drinking a carbonated beverage containing salt to balance out the potassium-sodium levels in the nervous system. The carbonation promotes quicker absorbtion.

The New York Times reports that Dr. Bryan R. Payne, a neurosurgeon at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, has had some success with an experimental new procedure in which a vagus nerve stimulator is implanted in the upper chest of patients with an intractable case of hiccups. "It sends rhythmic bursts of electricity to the brain by way of the vagus nerve, which passes through the neck. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vagus nerve stimulator in 1997 as a way to control seizures in some patients with epilepsy. In 2005, the agency endorsed the use of the stimulator as a treatment of last resort for people with severe depression.

Answer 7

I believe sometimes gaps of air that flow down our throats as we eat or drink causes hiccups.

Try drinking big gulps of water or small gulps of warm water.

Answer 8

During the intake of food, we also intake some form of the air. In the process of digestion these air comes out as hiccups or when something blocks the respiratory system

Answer 9

hiccups are mainly caused by lack of enough water for the digestion process to take place

Answer 10

They are the diaphragm spasming - keeping calm and ignoring them is probably all you can do, I expect holding your breath could have an effect, and you hold the diaphragm while you do it, but patience is it really.

By the way, well done Christi@n for just cutting and pasting Wikipedia without bothering to even name it as the source. Very lazy.