Despite great advances in medicine, hiccups remain a mystery to scientists. Although the mechanism of its formation and the ways to stop it are known, it is difficult to pinpoint the cause and purpose of the hiccups in the body. Dr. Ali Seifi from the University Hospital in Texas, who was asked a difficult question about hiccups by a patient, decided to look at the issue.
- Hiccups are paroxysmal and involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, causing inhalation suddenly interrupted by the closure of the glottis, part of the larynx
- It affects children and young people more often, but its occurrence is also associated with diseases of the digestive system
- Dr. Ali Seifi developed a device to overcome hiccups and devoted himself in his work, among others hiccup research
- However, he still wonders how it is possible that the world of science cannot find all the answers to the questions related to this mysterious ailment
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«Doctor, this is the XNUMXst century. Do you treat cancer, strokes, heart attacks, and you don’t treat simple things like hiccups? » — quotes a patient’s question by Dr. Ali Seifi, who works at the Department of Neuro-Intensive Therapy at the University Hospital of San Antonio, Texas. Dr. Seifi oversees the care of patients with diseases of the brain, spine and nervous system, but he devoted part of his work to researching hiccups.
The Doctor developed a simple tool called HiccAway — a plastic straw-like tube that increases pressure to lower the diaphragm while drinking and is effective in stopping hiccups in most cases. However, in his opinion Controlling hiccups has not brought scientists any closer to understanding why it occurs and still the public opinion and the medical community do not understand this phenomenon.
- Hiccups – causes, treatment and remedies for hiccups
What is hiccups?
To understand hiccups, you need to understand how your diaphragm works. The diaphragm is the main muscle that controls breathing and is located just below the lungs and close to the stomach. While inhaling diaphragm contracts and lowers and the chest widens. The diaphragm is controlled by nerves that leave the spinal cord in the neck. Irritation of the phrenic nerve endings causes them to send signals to the muscle that trigger contractions. As you draw in the air, the vocal cords and the glottis close, producing a characteristic hiccup sound.
What causes hiccups?
“The answer to the question of what causes the hiccups can be disappointing: we often don’t know”— says Dr. Ali Seifi, quoted by CNN. He adds that it can be triggered, inter alia, by eating spicy, alcohol, carbonated drinks, eating too fast, eating a large meal or acid reflux.
Scientists are also not sure what the hiccups are for. «These are just guesses — Dr. Ali Seifi explains, but some scientists theorize that there was a point in evolution where life moved from water to land and organisms needed something to prevent water from entering the lungs. There is a belief in the scientific community that all mammals suffer from hiccups ”.
Mark Fox, professor of gastroenterology at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, points out that hiccups are more common in younger people. However, no one knows why some people get hiccups more than others. “That’s the million dollar question” — Dr. Seifi said.
«Hiccups can be very common in infants in the womb — which is very interesting because they don’t use their lungs yet » — says Dr. Fox. “The cause of fetal hiccups, according to most scientists, is breathing training in preparation for this activity after birth” — he adds.
How to overcome hiccups?
Holding your breath, drinking water quickly, drinking upside down, or getting scared — they are methods passed down from generation to generation, behind which, according to Dr. Seifi, lies the right intuition. “They didn’t know what they were doing, but they were actually targeting the muscles that need to be” — He said. However, there is still no way to cure hiccups once and for all, only to overcome it once.
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