So what causes hiccups ? Hiccups are a common malady, known to the scientific community as ‘hiccups synchronous diaphragmatic flutter” (SDF). This malady that we are all familiar with happens when a person’s esophageal diaphragm begins to contracts involuntarily, and keeps on happening continuously.
Your diaphragm is a muscle in your body that keeps your chest area separated from your abdomen. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to breath. Professional singers take lessons to learn how to use their diaphragm to properly push out air to hit those high notes.
Hiccups are caused by an uncontrollable movement of the reflex arc. The reflex arc is the neural passageway which stops reflex actions uncontrollably. Usually hiccups go away on their own without any intervention necessary. However, sometimes hiccups don’t go away, and could be a sign of a more serious medical problem. When hiccups keep happening for prolonged periods of time, they are sometimes known as chronic hiccups. Hiccups help protect your body by keeping large chunks of food away from entering your gastro-intestinal tract.
The types of hiccups are:
Regular hiccups. These last for a couple hours, and then subside on their own.
Protracted, or persistent, hiccups. These hiccups generally last about 48 hours, but can last up to several weeks.
Intractable hiccups. These are the hiccups that remain a consistent problem for more than an entire month.
What causes hiccups to happen? There are many reasons why we get hiccups. Overeating, excessive alcohol consumption, eating spicy foods, over excitement, and malnutrition are just a few of the many causes. Hiccups may be more common among men than women, for reasons yet unknown to science. A person with hiccups will generally experience 5-6 hiccups per minute, and may also experience tightening of their chest, throat or stomach before the hiccup happens. There are many ways to cure hiccups, which you can find in depth in some of our other articles.
What causes hiccups to be more likely to happen to you?
Men. For some reason men appear to be more likely to get hiccups than women are.
People with recent surgical treatments. Hiccups that have not ceased after two days could be caused by abdominal dissensions, general anaesthetics, or swelling of the abdomen that often occurs after the patient has received an endoscopic procedure.
Intubation recipients. Whenever a tube is placed inside a your body’s hollow organs, it’s inevitable to get the hiccups.
People with a minor obstructed bowel.
People with pneumonia.
People with a heart lining infection called Pericaditis.
If you have had hiccups for more than two full days, it would be a good idea to talk your doctor. Your doctor can give you a complete check up, and make sure that there are no serious underlying causes of your irritating condition. He may recommend that you take some tests if he suspects a more dangerous medical situation, since what causes hiccups isn’t always harmless.
One of these potentially dangerous causes of hiccups is esophageal cancer. These involuntary spasms of the diaphragm, combined with difficulty and pain in swallowing, are some of the main symptoms of esophageal cancer. If you have these symptoms and they cannot be explained by other means, such as recent throat surgery, you should contact your doctor immediately to be sure you do not have this disease.
Advanced stage cancer patients with persistent hiccups will find themselves extremely limited in their personal quality of life. Chronic hiccups are difficult to stop completely; most treatments and home remedies only work for so long.
It may seem a bit strange to think that a simple hiccup could potentially be the result of such a serious problem, but more often than we would like to think, it does turn out to be something serious. Regular check-ups and various physical exams may not always be pleasant, but it is much better to be safe than to discover that you are in the late stages of a deadly disease that could have been cured if it had been spotted sooner.
What causes hiccups that could be serious threats to your health and well being:
Psychogenic. Sometimes caused by grief reaction, personality disorder or hysteria.
Intra-abdominal. Can be linked to gastric distensionm gastric cancer, bowel obstruction, pancreatic cancer, gastro-intestinal bleeding, ascites, or hepatomegaly.
Metabolic. Caused by renal failure as well as Hypocapnia, Hyponatremia, and Hypocalcaemia.
Iatrogenic. A surgical procedure like a thoracic or abdominal operation, or a intubation with a neck extention. Drugs may also cause this, such as Diazapam, Midazolam, Morphine, Methyl Prednisolone, Megestrol Acetate, and Dexamethasone.
Central nervous system. An intracranial tumor, encephalitis, cerebral vascular disease, and head injuries can cause problems in this category.
Intra-thoracic: An esophageal disorder like an obstruction, reflex, lung cancer, cancer, thoracic aneurysm, hiatus hernia, mydocardial infarctions, mediastinal tumors, and respiratory infections can cause hiccups.
A continual, acute hiccup problem can affect the suffer’s talking, sleeping, eating. This can become quite serious if the individual starts to become depressed, anxious, or experience fatigue caused by sleep interruption. Chronic hiccups can interrupt speech, cause pain, disturb sleep, decreased appetite, wound dehiscence, reflux esophagitis, depression, fatigue, and anxiety. If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms and has a chronic hiccupping problem, see your doctor immediately or recommend that your friend see his doctor.
Although what causes hiccups could end up being a serious condition, don’t let this article scare you. Chances are, your hiccups are probably coming from a very mundane source, such as those chili fries you ate for lunch. You shouldn’t start worrying unless your hiccups continue and don’t go away for several days, even when trying methods to stop them. You can read our other articles about how to cure hiccups to learn natural home remedies that have been proven to be very effective in soothing hiccups and restoring normal diaphragm function.
