Gabe Mirkin, M.D.
Most of the time, doctors never find the cause of hiccups.
When a cause is found it is almost always something that irritates
or presses on the nerves leading to the heart, lungs or
diaphragm, such as a tumor, stomach ulcer, or irregular heart
beats.
Your windpipe, which carries air to your lungs, is located
just in front of your esophagus, which carries food to your
stomach. You certainly don't want food to pass down your
windpipe, so it is covered with a trap door called the glottis. The
glottis closes when you swallow and prevents food and drink
from going into your lungs. The diaphragm is the huge muscle
that is situated underneath your lungs. It moves down to pull the
lungs down to fill your lungs with air. You get hiccups when the
diaphragm suddenly contracts downward to pull the lungs
downward and bring air into the lungs, but, before the air can get
into your lungs, the glottis, the trap door over the windpipe,
suddenly closes, and prevents air from entering the windpipe.
Hiccups have no useful function after you are born, but when you
were in your mother's womb, your face was under water and you
closed your glottis when your diaphragm moved down to prevent
water from getting into your lungs.
Everyone has a favorite hiccup remedy: touching a
spoon against the uvula repeatedly while you try to breathe in,
breathing into a bag, drinking water from the back side of a glass,
massaging your neck, pulling on your tongue, sudden fright,
pressing on your eyeball, or holding your breath. If none of those
work and hiccups persist, doctors may prescribe Baclofen, a drug
to reduce nerve messages; Metoclopramide, a drug to make the
stomach contract; Chlorpromazine, a drug to tranquilize nerves;
or Haldol, a drug used to treat schizophrenia.
June 15, 2006