Hic Hic Hooray: Hiccups Explained

Anonymous Hero writes "Finally after millions of years (and zillions of hiccups) New Scientist gives us an explanation for this most annoying and least obvious of adaptations!"

Comments

I always feel like a little kid when I get them...

[Ron Harwood]

...try being taken seriously at work when you have the hiccups...

What I want to know

[johndou1]

Why do I yawn when I see someone else yawn?

Re:What I want to know

[Bonker]

A doctor once told me that most yawns (not all) were a sign that you had high levels of C02 building up in your bloodstream. (Thus, it happens more often when you're sleepy and not moving around much) Yawning slowly expels most the gas from your lungs and causes you to deeply inhale, hopefully getting more oxygen than carbon dioxide in the mix.

Seeing another person yawn triggers the desire in you to yawn for the very real purpose of getting rid of your excess C02 as well. This may be because we know that if one of us is getting sleepy or deprived of oxygen we all are, or if one of us is in a location that is prone to oxygen depletion-- the bottom of a cave or burrow, for example-- then we need to move to an area that is more open to moving air.

Humans have a lot of responses like this. When one of us gets sick and vomits, anyone else who sees it also feels sick and tries to vomit. The implication being that if one of us has eaten bad, possibly toxic food, the rest of us should try to purge our stomachs before it affects us.

Try this the next time you're at home with your dog or cat. Yawn widely and deeply in front of your pet. Chances are, you can make your pet yawn. This is an old, *old* mechanism.

I know I'm yawning just thinking about it.

Re:What I want to know

[Verteiron]

This is a very, VERY old reflex. My wife keeps bettas (Siamese fighting fish) and I have seen them yawn unmistakably on severel occassions. What's interesting about that is that bettas are surface breathers (which is why you can keep them in tiny bowls), and every time I've seen once of them yawn, they immediately go up for air. They seem to do it especially if they spot each other through the glass and try to attack... BOTH fish will yawn and go up for air afterwards.

Very odd.

Short Answer

[passthecrackpipe]

Because basically, we are fish....

Babies

[dmorin]

My baby was hiccuping the day she was born. The doctor said that hiccups in babies are very common and not the same frustrating thing they are in adults. On the contrary it's the cutest darned thing since the little darling never stops staring at you all the while hiccuping like a crazy person. (As a new parent you learn to distinguish the cute harmless hiccups from the ..ahem...juicier sounding ones that signify you'd better get yourself a burp cloth in a hurry.)

The doctor also said that they have no clue why it happens, and that at least one study had shown that if you bring a baby out into bright light they will often start hiccuping. I keep pointing my daughter at the sun, but so far, nuthin. :)

Re:Babies

[Innova]

Our doctor also told us that hiccups are not frustrating and don't bother babies like they do adults. I didn't neccesarily believe this part. Why wouldn't they bother the baby just like they bother adults, does anyone know?

This is an idea - a theory, for goodness sake!

[anomaly]

The article seems to indicate that this is a concept - something that may have arisen from brainstorming, and may not be backed up by any data at all!!

This "explanation" is apparently supported by the thinnest of threads in terms of evolutionary history, and hard evidence is not presented to back this claim. This does not stop the Slashdot editors from posting this as "stuff that matters."

Please let the brainstormers check their ideas with research, show correlation, then causation, then present their findings in a way that can be checked by others.

This hypothesis, if you can call it that, is not tested and is perhaps not testable.
Why this reflex motion a) exists at all, and b) why it persists, if it descende from the frog may only be fodder for spectulation.

Science requires more than mere speculation.

Phooey.

Anomaly

Re:This is an idea - a theory, for goodness sake!

[nanojath]

I think you're being overly hard on the idea proposed in this article and overly optimistic about the function of Slashdot. The point of the article is that this is an interesting hypothesis that fits known facts and eliminates some of the problems of other theories that have been proposed. Although it will be, as one scientist notes, very difficult to prove, the scientists proposing the theory do in fact suggest how they might pursue experimental evidence in support of their hypothesis.

Does it "matter?" I think this article is fascinating. The suggestion that specific adaptations might persist beyond their usefulness to an organism because they form a foundation for later adaptations raises really interesting questions about how complex neurological behaviors are "built up" in organisms, and research in this territory could lead to a greater understanding of the line between inherited and learned behaviors, and the evolution of neurological response. That's cutting edge.

Science is indeed more than speculation but science begins with speculation, hypothesis, and theory. When I want hard science news I go to the resources in the scientific community, I read my Chemical and Engineering News magazines. 95 percent of what I read there is so dry and technical it would be pointless to post it on Slashdot.

"Münchnones, or mesoionic 1,3-oxazolium-5-oxides, are versatile substrates for 1,3-dipolar additions in constructing biologically active heterocycles. They usually are made by multistep synthesis, but now, Bruce A. Arndtsen, an associate professor of chemistry at McGill University, Montreal, and coworkers have come up with an easier way [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 125, 1474 (2003)]."

That's "real" science reporting. And it is definately more groundbreaking, in the immediate sense, than an article speculating about hiccups. But there is nothing wrong with a "color" science article that makes me think and wonder and dream a little bit about larger issues.

Take THAT creationists!

[defile]

Score one more for the we came from a puddle of sludge team!

Not that I wouldn't prefer creation over evolution. Probably wouldn't have hiccups. Thanks a lot, natural selection.

More ammunition

[binaryDigit]

I'll have to show to article to the wife. That way the next time I get the hiccups, she'll understand why I start going for, uh well, if you read the article you'll know.

If Only...

[stungod]

If only I had known this in elementary school. It would have saved me from detention.

Remember how all of the school health books had a little blurb on hiccups? The Q&A form went like this:

Q: What causes hiccups?
A: Hiccups are a spastic contraction of the diaphragm combined with the closing of the windpipe. Drink some water...

I got in trouble for not accepting that. The teacher gave the class the same answer and I told him: "OK, so that's what they are, but WHY do we get them?" Same answer again. So I explained to the teacher and the class the difference between cause and effect.

2 hours after school...oh, the trauma! Freakin' great way to foster a sense of inquiry.

nohup

[Root Down]

UNIX can prevent hiccups in the first place with the nohup command.

nohup whoami

"UNIX: It sure beats drinking a glass of water while standing on your head!"

Stopping hiccups

[UnknownSoldier]

I don't know how scientific my technique is, but it's practical. :)

Place both of your fingertips so that you feel the "bottom" of your rib cage, about 2 inches above either side of your belly button. Then move your fingers down about an inch, and then finally push in about an inch. Basically, you're pushing on your diaphragm. Hold for about 30 seconds. (Basically two hiccup cycles.)

I discovered it after learning musicians should be breathing from their diaphragm. Has worked like a charm over the many years.

Cheers

Re:I always feel like a little kid when I get them

[ebh]

This has only failed me once in the last ten years. YMMV.

1. Get a glass of water.
2. Take a deep breath and let it out, but don't push it out. Don't worry if you hiccup during that breath.
3. Without taking another breath, start taking *tiny* sips of the water; try to take at least one per second. Swallow each one. Keep your epiglottis closed as much as you can, in case you hiccup in the middle of doing this.
4. After 10-15 sips, the muscles in your mouth and throat will start to get tired, making it more difficult to do this. Keep going.
5. After a few more sips you won't care about the tired muscles, because you'll really REALLY want to breathe. Force yourself to take a couple more sips, then stop drinking and take that breath.

You should have no more hiccups after this. If you keep hiccuping wait a few minutes and try again. If it doesn't work on the second try, you're screwed. Also, this will not work if the hiccups are from being drunk and it may not work if they're a side-effect of medication.

Re:It's All Mental

[SuiteSisterMary]

Tonight, we'll interview a man who's had the hiccups for 27 years!

*cut to clip from interview*
*hic* Kill me. *hic* Kill me. *hic* Kill me. *hic* Kill me.

Re:Not quite as useful...

[rdpie]

Allow me to ANSWER ALLLLL your Questions (how come no-one knows this stuff). a) We yawn when we are TIRED -- the extra oxygen and the expelling to stale old CO2 rich air helps to WAKE US UP. Thats why you yawn when you are tired. b) The whole you yawn I yawn thing is due to humans being social animals. If one of our 'tribe' is tired (i.e. ANYONE else) then its probably time for sleep, yawning is a way of passing the message around (or so it is thought). Its kinda like when you see other people sleeping you want to go to sleep... c) Based on answer a: i) SIT UP -- give your lungs space to move ii) Breath more deeply iii) Get some fresh air and some light. Ultimately, 'yawning is just a BIG breath of fresh air'. Thats also why you yawn when you get up in the morning.

Photopic sneeze

[LondonLawyer]

There's a problem for fighter pilots called photopic sneeze which affects them when they are suddenly hit in the eyes with bright sunlight and can cause loss of control at high speeds. Interesting that some guy here mentions a drinking buddy who used to both sneeze and hiccough when out drinking. Wonder how closely these two spasmodic reflexes are linked.

Re:I always feel like a little kid when I get them

[GreyPoopon]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I only get hiccups when I have air trapped in my stomach. I've found there are two ways to get rid of them (for me). Both involve burping. The first is to swallow more air by closing off the windpipe and sucking air into the stomach, which almost immediately causes me to burp and usually takes both the trapped air and the new air I swallowed with it. This is what I've always assumed that my hiccups were trying to make me do, so bully on the article that was posted. The second, which I prefer, is to tense my stomach muscles in such a way that at the next hiccup, the air is forced out of my stomach. Using these techniques, I rarely hiccup more than three times. In fact, the last time I couldn't get rid of them was right after I had my wisdom teeth removed (years ago) and I was still recovering from the effects of whatever valium derivative they used.

Re:I always feel like a little kid when I get them

[andrew_0812]

I don't really suggest you try this while in a meeting!

Why not? It could get rid of the hiccups. I am sure the rest of the people in the meeting could relate. And if it didn't work, and you hiccuped with a mouth full of water, causing you to inhale a portion of it, and then invoulantarily cough and spew that water all over the conference table, well, that would just provide some comic relief that was probably sorely needed anyway.

Right?

No, no, no

[filmsmith]

When you yawn, you're readjusting the pressure inside your head. It's why your ears pop. When someone else yawns, they've just altered the pressure around your head so now YOU have to calibrate your pressure to match the NEW air pressure.