Ben Reihanian Week 4 - Hiccuping. What the hell is going on?!

 Hiccuping. What the Hell is Going On?!


    You’re at breakfast, lunch, or dinner. You’re eating your food and taking sips of your drink when all of a sudden it feels like you’re throwing up, but like your mouth is dry and it’s all just really involuntary and weird. You make this weird “hic” noise and everyone looks at you funny hoping that it’s the first hiccup and the last. But then, “hic,” “hic,” “hic,” “hic,” “hic,”  - you’re on a roll. You might ask yourself, what the hell is going on? This is so annoying!

Well, I’ll tell you what’s going on … just after I watch this video from the Institute of Human Anatomy on Youtube. 

Okay. 6 minutes later and I think I understand it. I’ll sum it up for you, but first I need to talk a little bit about how we breathe. Our diaphragm and lungs are connected to each other by a thin sheet of cells. Therefore, when something involuntary happens to our diaphragm, something involuntary happens to our lungs. In order to breathe, our diaphragm contracts, and our lungs fill up with negative pressure in order to suck in air. When we breathe out, the diaphragm relaxes, and our lungs push out the air, returning to normal pressure. That’s it, that’s how we breathe.

Okay, but what if all of a sudden our brain decides to be silly and is like “What if I just send some outgoing signals to the diaphragm to make it contract? That’d be super fun right?” No. It’s not funny. It’s annoying. That’s why we hiccup. Hiccups happen when our brain (for multiple reasons) sends outgoing signals directly to our diaphragm telling it to contract over and over again in what doctors call a “reflex arc”. Remember, when our diaphragm contracts air tries to rush in, but all of a sudden your vocal cords also just close up. The air that was rushing in hits your vocal cords and then you make that annoying annoying “hic” sound. 

There are many various reasons for hiccups like eating too fast, drinking too fast, crying too much, laughing too much, being scared, sudden temperature changes, swallowing air, drinking carbonated drinks, the list goes on and on. Physiologically, doctors still don’t have the clearest idea of what is going on and truly why it happens. 

Along with the many causes, there are many remedies. There’s no pill for hiccups though, just hundreds and hundreds of random weird home cures that all have one thing in common. They all interrupt the signals going to and from your diaphragm.

When was the last time you had hiccups? Do you know how it started? When was the longest time your hiccups persisted?








Comments

  1. AnonymousOct 12, 2021, 6:43:00 PM

    The worst part about hiccups is that they are intermittent. Just when you think you are done they keep coming back.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOct 17, 2021, 1:27:00 PM

    I tend to get hiccups when I laugh too much. The weirdest thing to me about hiccups is how they end. Does your breathing settle to a point where the hiccups are no longer noticeable or does it just randomly stop? It is a very strange phenomenon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousOct 18, 2021, 10:07:00 AM

      I believe that your brain just stops sending signals to your diaphragm to contract and the reflex arc is broken.

      Delete

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