WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Why Do We Get Hiccups?

0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:04.320
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.119
<v Speaker 1>Hey rain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's episode is

0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.000
<v Speaker 1>another classic. In this one, we go into the widely

0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:22.200
<v Speaker 1>annoying but surprisingly confounding causes and hears of hiccups. Hey

0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:25.720
<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's question is how

0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:30.040
<v Speaker 1>do we get hiccups? Science isn't sure, actually, but it's

0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.160
<v Speaker 1>not that medical science has been ignoring hiccups. When these

0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.599
<v Speaker 1>spasms are frequent or persistent in adults, they can indicate

0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:40.000
<v Speaker 1>over a hundred different diseases and disorders, from multiple sclerosis

0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:44.480
<v Speaker 1>to cancer to appendicitis, and hiccups themselves can get serious

0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:47.919
<v Speaker 1>and what's called intractable cases. Hiccups don't stop for more

0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.400
<v Speaker 1>than a month and can go on for years without relief,

0:00:50.600 --> 0:00:54.440
<v Speaker 1>leading to complications like a regular heartbeat, weight loss, insomnia,

0:00:54.520 --> 0:01:00.600
<v Speaker 1>and emotional distress. Understandably, but okay, science isn't totally ignorant here.

0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.160
<v Speaker 1>We know the basics. Hiccups are reflexive spasms of the

0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 1>diaphragm and glottis and more on both of those in

0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:10.440
<v Speaker 1>a second caused by irritation to any of several nerves.

0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:14.920
<v Speaker 1>Throughout your body. During normal, non hiccuppy breathing, you move

0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:17.720
<v Speaker 1>air into and out of your lungs, partially thanks to

0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:22.399
<v Speaker 1>contractions of your diaphragm. It contracts pulling downward as you inhale,

0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.360
<v Speaker 1>giving your lungs room to expand, then releases, relaxing upward

0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.880
<v Speaker 1>and letting your lungs contract as you exhale, and all

0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:34.240
<v Speaker 1>that air moves through your throat and importantly through your glottis,

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.360
<v Speaker 1>which is the opening between your vocal cords. But during

0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.920
<v Speaker 1>a hiccup, at least half of your diaphragm for some

0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.520
<v Speaker 1>reason contracts sharply about eighty percent of the time, it's

0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:47.240
<v Speaker 1>just the left half. Go figure that contraction starts pulling

0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.000
<v Speaker 1>in a deep breath, but that breath gets cut short

0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.000
<v Speaker 1>by the glottis snapping shut about three hundreds of a

0:01:53.040 --> 0:01:56.960
<v Speaker 1>second later. The hicck sound comes from that sudden closure.

0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:00.840
<v Speaker 1>In most cases, hiccups are caused by irritation of the

0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.960
<v Speaker 1>fhrenic nerves, which control the motion of the diaphragm and

0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:06.800
<v Speaker 1>send your brain sensory information about what's going on in

0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:10.320
<v Speaker 1>various parts of your neck and body. That irritation is

0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.799
<v Speaker 1>usually from your stomach distending when you accidentally swallow air,

0:02:14.080 --> 0:02:16.480
<v Speaker 1>or when you eat or drink too much too fast,

0:02:16.800 --> 0:02:21.080
<v Speaker 1>especially carbonated beverages like soda or beer. In rarer cases,

0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.240
<v Speaker 1>lots of other irritations can be at fault more serious

0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:27.880
<v Speaker 1>than having over drank soda or beer, such as infections

0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:30.360
<v Speaker 1>of or trauma to anything that the fhrenic nerves touch,

0:02:30.720 --> 0:02:33.720
<v Speaker 1>like a tumor pressing against them in your neck, or pericarditis,

0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:35.959
<v Speaker 1>which is the swelling of the membrane around your heart.

0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.119
<v Speaker 1>Irritations of the vagus nerve can also be hiccup culprits,

0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:43.040
<v Speaker 1>possibly due to its connection to the larynx, along with

0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:46.040
<v Speaker 1>everything from your small intestine to the inside of your ear,

0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:49.440
<v Speaker 1>and lots of stuff in between. If you're looking to

0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.600
<v Speaker 1>get rid of hiccups, some of the most common home

0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.560
<v Speaker 1>remedies really are worthwhile. They work by either overloading the

0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.560
<v Speaker 1>frenic or vagus nerves or by interrupting your involuntary breathing cycle.

0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.200
<v Speaker 1>For nerve overload, try biting into a lemon, placing a

0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.720
<v Speaker 1>spoonful of sugar on the back of your tongue, pulling

0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:08.440
<v Speaker 1>on your tongue, or having a friend tickler scare you

0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.280
<v Speaker 1>on the respiratory and try holding your breath, gulping down

0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:14.680
<v Speaker 1>a glass of water, or breathing into a paper bag

0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:18.800
<v Speaker 1>and if nothing works, hiccups generally go away on their own.

0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:21.519
<v Speaker 1>If they do stick around for more than forty eight hours,

0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:25.080
<v Speaker 1>see a doctor just in case. The purpose behind this

0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.240
<v Speaker 1>reflex is still a mystery. Some researchers say that they

0:03:28.280 --> 0:03:32.160
<v Speaker 1>could be vestigial spasms related to how our amphibian ancestors

0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:36.559
<v Speaker 1>controlled their gills. Others postulate that they help with breastfeeding.

0:03:36.920 --> 0:03:39.680
<v Speaker 1>Hiccups can release small amounts of air from the stomach

0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.320
<v Speaker 1>into the esophagus, where it can be exhaled, so hiccups

0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.720
<v Speaker 1>might serve to get air out of baby stomachs, making

0:03:45.760 --> 0:03:52.080
<v Speaker 1>more space for milk. Today's episode is based on a

0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.240
<v Speaker 1>script that I wrote for a brain stuff video for

0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.120
<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot Com. The brain Stuff is production

0:03:57.120 --> 0:03:59.200
<v Speaker 1>of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works

0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.920
<v Speaker 1>dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler Clang. Four more

0:04:01.960 --> 0:04:04.720
<v Speaker 1>podcasts my heart Radio, visit the a heart Radio app,

0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.600
<v Speaker 1>Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.