Human nature - Weird things we do! - Hiccups- Part 5
What are hiccups?
Hiccups are involuntary contractions of the diaphragm — the muscle that separates your chest from your abdomen and plays an important role in breathing. Each contraction is followed by a sudden closure of your vocal cords, which produces the characteristic "hic" sound.
Hiccups are very annoying. We've all had them! Those awful little sounds that escape without any warning. Hiccups usually happen when something irritates your diaphragm and it goes into spasm. There can however be a range of reasons why you get the hiccups. When you eat too fast, drink too much alcohol or fizzy drinks, and even emotional issues, like feeling nervous or over-excited can be the cause of your hiccup session.
Babies hiccup in the womb long before they are born because of breathing in amniotic fluid. After the development of the central nervous system, the amniotic acid flows in and out of the baby's lungs making the diaphragm contract spontaneously.
Hiccups usually stop when the irritation is gone, but they can stick around. If they last longer than 48 hours you might have some other underlying issue.
An American man named Charles Osborne was weighing a pig in 1922 and started hiccupping. He was still hiccupping 68 years later in 1990, after about 430 million hiccups. Mr. Osborne holds the Guinness World Record for the longest attack of hiccups.
In the case above, when picking up the pig, Mr. Osborne might have damaged some nerves connected to his diaphragm.
There are plenty of old wives ' tales about hiccups, and some of them are hilarious BUT none of them work.
Hiccups start naturally and will stop by itself.
1. You only get hiccups when someone is talking badly about you! The only cure is to guess the person's name.
2. Stand on your head and drink a glass of water...hmmm I don't think anyone ever succeeded in doing that!
3. Think about the last time you've seen a white horse. This will apparently make the hiccups stop immediately.
4. Breath into a brown paper bag. This will help control your breathing and make the hiccups stop.
5. Drink a glass of water without breathing.
6. Eat a teaspoon of sugar. If the hiccups won't kill you, sugar might just do the trick.
7. Scare someone with the hiccups. You might give them a heart attack instead of making the hiccups go away.
There is no scientific proof that any of the above will work. If you experience hiccups for longer than 48 hours, it might be time for you to go and see a doctor, except if you are trying to break the Guinness world record!
Here are some extra articles if you want to read more about hiccups.
https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/9-things-you-dont-know-about-hiccups.html
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/what-causes-hiccups
https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/hiccups-chronic/
