What ’s up with hiccups?

Follow me on Twitter @RobShmerling If you do an Internet search on “hiccups” you’ll find lots of supposed cures for this annoying but usually fast-passing condition — one site lists 250 of them! One thing you won’t find, though, is a good reason for why we hiccup. Hiccupping is a more complex reflex than it might seem: a sudden contraction or spasm of the diaphragm and the muscles between the ribs makes you inhale quickly and involuntarily. It ends with “glottic closure” — the space in the throat near the vocal cords snaps shut, producing the typical hiccup sound. The technical term for hiccups (singultus) comes from a Latin word (singult) that means catching your breath while crying, which seems like a pretty good description of the sound of hiccupping. In most cases hiccups seem to serve no purpose and go away on their own, usually after 30 or more hiccups. Any of the following may cause a short bout of hiccups: an overly full stomach, due to too much food, too much alcohol, or too much air in the stomach sudden changes in temperature, either outside your body or internally smoking cigarettes excitement, stress, or other heightened emotions. Making hiccups go away Of the many, many ways to get rid of hiccups, here are a few you can try that are logical, considering the muscles and tissues involved: Stimulating the nasopharynx, or the uppermost region of the throat, by pulling on your tongue, swallowing granulated sugar, gargling with water, sipping ice wa...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Health Source Type: blogs