The unfortunate farmer had several unsuccessful operations to correct the problem. They apparently started when he was attempting to weigh a hog before slaughter and the animal accidently fell on top of him. In very rare cases, tumours, nerve damage or other medical ailments can cause persistent hiccups – lasting hours, days or even longer – and the patient needs to see a doctor.Īccording to Guinness World Records, an Iowa farmer, Charles Osborne, had a case of continuous hiccups lasting for 68 years, from 1922 to 1990. The epiglottis seals the windpipe “at the wrong moment, when it doesn’t really need to,” says Dr. It basically seems to be a protective response – although the timing is a bit off. So, it’s important to keep the annoying hiccup in perspective. “On the contrary, they have got a much more serious problem of liquids and solids ending up in their lungs.” For this group of patients, aspirational pneumonia is a common cause of death. “They are not suffering from hiccups anymore,” says Dr. However, in people with certain neurological conditions – such as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and stroke – this reflex can cease to function properly. As a result, older adults seem to have fewer bouts of hiccups than the young. He speculates that this reflex could be hyperactive in young people and that extra responsiveness might explain why hiccups are fairly common in babies and young children.Īs we age, the muscles that cause the epiglottis to spring into action might become less twitchy. “Most people just take this for granted.”
“It’s kind of amazing that we can breathe air into our lungs and drink into our stomachs and keep those two paths separate. To prevent this from happening, a reflex triggers the epiglottis to cover the opening to the lungs when you swallow, thereby funneling food or drink down the esophagus into the stomach. If food or liquid goes down the wrong way and enters the lungs, it can lead to a potentially deadly infection known as aspirational pneumonia. He points out that the mouth is used to take in solids, liquids and air – and they must end up in the right place. And he says hiccups illustrate a “much larger story” about the complex reflexes that help keep us alive. Redelmeier, for one, thinks it starts in the throat. In other words, does the spasm in the diaphragm trigger the epiglottis to shut, or vise versa?ĭr. This is known as “glottic closure” and the sudden reflexive motion produces the typical “hic” sound.īut there is no consensus about whether this sequence begins in the chest or the throat, says Dr. The epiglottis, a flap of tissue behind the tongue, slams shut over the top of the windpipe leading to the lungs.
The diaphragm, the main muscle the powers the lungs, goes into spasm or contraction. What can be said with some certainty is that a hiccup involves two very distinct actions:
Donald Redelmeier, a staff physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto. So, it’s not seen as a pressing problem that needs a lot of deep analysis and medical investigation, says Dr. After all, they don’t usually indicate that something is seriously wrong and they normally stop on their own – often within a few minutes. Hiccups are one of the unsolved mysteries of the human body. That’s got me wondering why do people hiccup, and is there a proven way to make them stop?ĪNSWER: Hiccups may be extremely common, but that doesn’t mean doctors have figured out what actually causes them. QUESTION: My young son often gets the hiccups.
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