Financial Planning Strategies and Considerations for Single and Divorced People

What Are Hiccups?

Once is funny, twice is hilarious, and anything more than that is usually just annoying. We’ve all had them, but do you actually know where they come from? They’re hiccups, and they’re the strange little sounds that can escape from your mouth without warning.

Hiccups start much lower in your body, in the diaphragm — the dome-shaped muscle between your lungs and stomach. Normally, the diaphragm pulls down when you inhale to let air into your lungs, and then relaxes when you exhale so air can flow back out of your lungs to exit your nose and mouth.

But if something irritates your diaphragm, it can cause an involuntary spasm, forcing you to suddenly suck air into your throat, where it hits your voice box. That makes your vocal cords suddenly close, creating the distinct “hic!” sound.

The medical term for hiccups is singultus, which comes from the Latin word "singult," meaning "to catch your breath while sobbing."

What Causes Hiccups?

Hiccups can happen for a lot of reasons -- some of them are physical and some emotional. That’s because the actual irritation happens in the nerve connecting the brain to the diaphragm. Some common causes include:

• Eating too much or too quickly
• Feeling nervous or excited
• Drinking carbonated beverages or too much alcohol
• Stress
• A sudden change in temperature
• Swallowing air while sucking on candy or chewing gum

Can some drugs cause hiccups?

Sometimes, the general anesthesia drugs used to sedate you for surgery can cause hiccups. Other drugs that can cause ongoing hiccups include:

• Azithromycin (brand name Zithromax), which is an antibiotic
• Dexamethasone, a corticosteroid used to treat skin, joint, and lung inflammation as well as conditions such as allergies, asthma, arthritis, blood disorders, and adrenal disease
• Low doses of benzodiazepines, a class of drugs used to treat anxiety and seizures
• Dopamine agonists, used to treat movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease
• Certain chemotherapy drugs for cancer

Hiccups in the womb

Around the fourth or fifth month of your pregnancy, you may feel jerking inside your stomach or even see these movements on your stomach. These rhythmic, jerking movements are usually hiccups. When your fetus hiccups, it's a normal response. These hiccups usually go away on their own after a while but may sometimes last as long as an hour.

Hiccups after eating

You may get a temporary case of hiccups after eating:

• Too much
• Too fast
• Spicy foods
• Foods that are too hot or too cold

You can also get hiccups from carbonated drinks or drinking too much alcohol.

Emotional hiccups

The phrenic nerve is used by your brain to regulate the diaphragm. A scare, shock, or nervous reaction can irritate the phrenic nerve and trigger a spasm in your diaphragm, causing hiccups.