Why do we get hiccups ??
Ever faced the funny sound that comes from within you at some random places sometimes annoying, sometimes even embarrassing to some extent. One hic, two hics and there would be someone asking you to get a glass of water or offering a glass of cold water. Yes, we are talking about hiccups!!
So why do we have these hiccups? Because our friends, our loved ones are thinking of us, right?? Well maybe yes, maybe not, but anatomically there is one muscle in our body where we can lay the blame to. Not the big bulky muscles our hand, no not the biceps, its a muscle which is resting below our lungs and above our stomach helping us breathe. And the name of that muscle is DIAPHRAGM.
So how this muscle works? When we breathe in, this muscle called as diaphragm contract, it pulls the lower part of lung along which helps to expand the lungs and take in air. And as we exhale, this muscle relaxes
When we eat excessively or very fast our stomach get disturbed and stretchy which pushes the diaphragm causing fast movements of diaphragm which leads to quick gulping of air. This can also happen when we consume any fizzy or carbonated drinks or sometimes when we get too excited or due to sudden change in temperature as well.
When you are getting hiccups that's basically your body trying to take in some amount of air little more quickly and a little randomly.
And its not just always food or stomach being upset which can cause this, sometimes even if the nerves( phrenic and/or vagus nerves) which controls the contraction and relaxation of the diaphragm gets disturbed that can cause the hiccups as well, This is why sudden scare works sometimes as this can reset the nerves back to normalcy.
But where is that sound coming from?? Normally when we breathe we don't make any kind of sound like the one we get when we have hiccups. So where is the sound coming from??.
The sound is actually coming from the vocal flaps. Because of the random and quick gulp of air intake which happens because of the diaphragm sudden twitch/movement, it causes the vocal flaps to move suddenly which causes vocal chords to shut quickly thus causing the sound.
Now we know why this happens. How do we make the hiccups go away? Although in normal cases, hiccups can go away after a few minutes, something like drinking a glass of cold water, holding our breath, suddenly scaring someone, breathing in through a packet, burping (especially when feeding babies) are some of the age old solutions which are tried by everyone. As per studies these are distractions which helps relaxes and reset the diaphragm or the nerves controlling the spasms back to normal functioning.
And the hiccups which maybe annoying for humans can be savior for some one else. It is said that the hiccups help tadpoles to keep their lung safe when they go from breathing under water to above water So maybe we got this from our amphibian ancestors as part of evolution. Well, that's something we can explore later!
Coming back to hiccups, do you know a guy named Charles Osborne started with hiccup in 1922 after some 300 plus pound pig fell on him which damaged a small part of the brain which inhibits or stops the hiccup response of our body. As a result the hiccups continued and lasted for around 68 years which is still a record for the longevity of hiccups.
Just imagine having a record for continuous six decades of hiccups!
Who would compete against that right? Well around the late 2000s there was some Jennifer Mee from Florida who went straight ~ 35 days with hiccups and that too around 50 times per minute. Talk about competing with time itself, isn't it.
Well there is a certain lot to small funny and annoying sound right?? Believe us, there is much more science to be worked on and people are working on to understand this funny hiccups better. Well you got to know atleast some of the reasons behind because of your curious mind. Who knows what next thing your curious mind would find. Until next time, keep up with the curious talks.
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