Why and How Do We Get the Hiccups?
Question by Bibi: Why and how do we get the hiccups?
I get the hiccups a lot and wanna know why and how I get them
Best answer:
Answer by skeptical
There are a lot of theories, but the bottom line is, nobody knows for sure.
Answer by EV
Causes
Hiccups (singultus) can be caused by many central and peripheral nervous system disorders, all from injury or irritation to the phrenic and vagus nerves, as well as toxic or metabolic disorders affecting aforementioned systems. Hiccups often occur after drinking carbonated beverages or alcohol. Persistent or intractable hiccups may be caused by any condition which irritates or damages the relevant nerves. Chemotherapy—which includes a huge amount of different drugs—has been implicated in hiccups (some data states 30 percent of treated), while other studies have not proven such a relationship. Many times chemotherapy is applied to tumors sitting at places that are by themselves prone to cause hiccups, if irritated. [1][2]
List of possible causes of hiccup (singultus):
Carbonated beverages
Lack of water
Eating too fast
Being hungry for a while
Taking a cold drink while eating a hot meal
Burping
Eating very hot or spicy food
Laughing vigorously
Coughing
Drinking alcoholic beverages in excess
Crying out loud (sobbing causes air to enter the stomach)
Some smoking situations where abnormal inhalation can occur (in tobacco or other smoke like cannabis, perhaps triggered by precursors to coughing)
Electrolyte imbalance
Talking for too long
Clearing the throat
Use of some of the stronger opiate/opioid painkillers such as heroin, morphine, methadone and oxycodone
Lack of vitamins
Overstretching of the neck
Laryngitis
Heartburn (gastroesophageal reflux)
Sensation that there is food in the esophagus
Irritation of the eardrum (which is innervated by the vagus nerve)
Pressure to the phrenic nerve
Chemotherapy
General anesthesia
Surgery
Bloating
Tumor
Infection
Diabetes
Standing up too fast
Vomiting
Seizure
Lack of Oxygen
Phylogenetic hypothesis
Christian Straus and co-workers at the Respiratory Research Group, University of Calgary, Canada, propose that the hiccup is an evolutionary remnant of earlier amphibian respiration; amphibians such as frogs gulp air and water via a rather simple motor reflex akin to mammalian hiccuping.[3] In support of this idea, they observe that the motor pathways that enable hiccuping form early during fetal development, before the motor pathways that enable normal lung ventilation to form; thus according to recapitulation theory the hiccup is evolutionarily antecedent to modern lung respiration. Additionally, they point out that hiccups and amphibian gulping are inhibited by elevated CO2 and can be completely stopped by the drug Baclofen (a GABAB receptor agonist), illustrating a shared physiology and evolutionary heritage. These proposals would explain why premature infants spend 2.5% of their time hiccuping, indeed they are gulping just like amphibians, as their lungs are not yet fully formed.[4]
Treatment
Ordinary hiccups are cured easily without medical intervention; in most cases they can be stopped simply by forgetting about them. However, there are a number of anecdotal treatments for casual cases of hiccups. Some of the more common home remedies include giving the afflicted a fright or shock, drinking water (sometimes in an unorthodox manner), and altering one’s breathing.
Medical treatment
Hiccups are treated medically only in severe and persistent (termed “intractable”) cases, such as in the case of a 15-year-old girl who, in 2007, hiccuped continuously for five weeks.[5] 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 renders the person either unconscious or highly lethargic. Hence, medicating singultus is done short-term, as the affected individual cannot continue with normal life activities while taking the medication.
Digital rectal massage has been recommended as a remedy that causes immediate cessation of hiccups and which should be tried before resorting to drugs.[6]
Persistent and intractable hiccups due to electrolyte imbalance (hypokalemia, hyponatremia) may benefit from drinking a carbonated beverage containing salt to normalize the potassium-sodium balance in the nervous system. The carbonation promotes quicker absorption. Carbonated beverages have though by themselves a tendency to provoke hiccup in some persons.
The administration of intranasal vinegar is thought to be safe and handy method to stimulate dorsal wall of nasopharynx, where the pharyngeal branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve (afferent of the hiccup reflex arc) is distributed.[7]
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
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