Science of Hiccups

Does Your Heart Stop When You Hiccup?

Your heart can have palpitations or “heart hiccups” fairly often without the presence of any underlying or dangerous health situation. Especially if your heart is working harder than normal or if you have a mild heart palpitation condition.

With that said, no – The act of hiccuping does not solely stop your heart. To understand the science behind the annoyance, here’s a guide to hiccups:

Why Do I Have Hiccups and Why Won’t They Go Away?

Hiccups are a reaction of the muscle that separates your lungs and chest from your abdomen – also known as the diaphragm. When you get the hiccups, your diaphragm is contracting because of irritation somewhere in your digestive or respiratory system, usually brought on by food, drink, or mood.

Food

Hey, you’re hungry, understood! Take it easy though – if you scarf down your lunch too fast, it can disrupt your breathing pattern and/or irritate your esophagus, which are both sure-fire ways to get the hiccups.
And then there’s you, daredevil spicy food fans. If you enjoy foods that have so much kick in the flavor that it takes your breath away – hiccups will probably take your breath away, too.
Spicy pepper burps can be brutal. Try that same flavor on for size repetitively with hiccups. No bueno.

Drink

Carbonated or acidic beverages can irritate your esophagus or epiglottis. Alcoholic beverages are also infamous hiccup instigators. We humans aren’t great on moderation, that’s for sure – you don’t have to eat plain toast and drink flat water for every meal, but moderation is key!
Juice is good for you, and even a spot of wine or beer can be beneficial to your heart health from time to time. They’re also all loaded with sugar…guess what else can bring hiccups out of seemingly nowhere?

Stress

Some people just get a little more amped up than others in certain situations – social anxiety is a part of life, as is work and family-related stress. If you get too worked up, you may be cooking up your own little batch of hiccup day destruction.

Out Of Nowhere

You don’t have to have a good reason to be dealing with a hiccup session. Laughing too hard, some weird combination of a burp-sneeze-toot, or even talking too fast can throw your diaphragm into fits.

Hey Moms…Hiccups And Heartbeat Aren’t Related

Put down the mimosa, Ma! Hiccups will drive your kiddos bonkers, probably bring on a (borderline comical) cry-hiccup-cry spell, and require some big hugs. What they won’t do is directly cause any kind of heart issues or damage.

There Can Be a Few Health Concerns

Hiccups are a naturally occurring process of the human body that helps us to expel hazardous substances from entering our bodies. All things considered, however, a prolonged bout can turn into a pretty uncomfortable and dangerous situation – especially for the kiddos.

Diaphragm Pain

Probably the most lingering symptom of a bout with hiccups is the pain associated with having the muscle contract. Imagine flexing your biceps to full strength very quickly for an hour at a time. That wouldn’t be pleasant, eh – now imagine that pain in your sternum.

Difficulty Eating and Drinking

How can you enjoy a full meal and stay hydrated when you’re sucking air into the back of your throat every 15-20 seconds? And even if you find a solution, how can it be safe? The choking hazards are unreal.

Social Stigma

There’s no easy way to put this – if you’re enduring a fit of hiccups, it’s tough to be taken seriously. It’s no fault of your own because hiccups are associated with drunkenness and sloppy behavior. We get it, convulsing in public is not ideal.

Old Wive’s Tales

If you’re reading this, you’ve heard of at least one “home remedy” to cure hiccups. While this isn’t a complete medical guide to hiccups, we’ll break down some of those remedies here.

Holding Your Breath

The most common advice that you’re likely to get when it comes to curing hiccups is to hold your breath – even medical professionals advise their patients to try this method.

Holding your breath tends to relax your diaphragm – the muscle that causes hiccups by contracting. It stands to reason that this will work and it seems to for many people, but not everyone.

Someone Scaring You

The thinking here is that if someone scares or shocks you, your body will “forget” the hiccups in favor of putting up a defense toward physical harm. There is no evidence that this method works, and sudden adrenaline rushes have not been proven to alleviate a bout of hiccups, either.

Someone Pinching You

This falls along the same line of thinking as having someone scare you. The logic is that by having someone stimulate a pain sensor (i.e. pinching a sensitive spot when you’re not expecting it), will cause your body to ignore the smaller problem of hiccups and focus on the acute pain point. Unfortunately, there isn’t much evidence available to prove this, either.

Eating Something Especially Spicy or Sour

Unless you’re a sadomasochist, don’t try this method. This method of curing hiccups is something that older brothers tell their kid brothers to do so that they can watch them suffer. In short – it doesn’t work, so please don’t do it.

Drinking a Glass of Water “Backwards”

This method actually falls somewhat in the “win” column – it works…sometimes!

The idea is to drink a full glass of water, but instead of drinking it from the lip of the glass that is closest to your mouth, you drink it from the back side of the glass.

If that doesn’t make sense, envision yourself sticking your chin in the top of a glass and putting your mouth on the back surface of it.

Got that? It actually works sometimes because the angle at which you have to lean to drink the water coupled with the throat and epiglottis movements that happen while drinking the water tend to have a relaxing effect on your diaphragm.

The clear downside here is getting water all over the floor, your face, and up your nose. Death by drowning via hiccup remedies would look funny on your tombstone.

There Is Now a Real Solution

Hiccupops are proven to cure hiccups in seconds – that’s right, seconds. They come in the form of a simple lollypop and taste like one, too.

Hiccups cause a cyclical contraction in your diaphragm, and Hiccupops reset that cycle. Just a moment of enjoying the flavor of a Hiccupop reopens your breathing passages and aids in a restoration of normal breathing patterns.

Simple Fix for All Sufferers

If you’re someone who can’t seem to get over long battles with hiccups, you’re also someone who definitely wants to find a quick fix.

They cause a lot of pain and discomfort after a short while – some folks resort to inducing vomit to reset their diaphragm contractions!

If you’re one of the four types of people that we listed above who have hiccup triggers in the form of food, drink, stress, or “whoops” out of the blue – finally, there is a product that is proven to help instead of following your roommate’s advice to “oh yeah, bend this way and take a shot of hot sauce and then eat a cracker with mustard and then say six Hail Mary’s.”

You Don’t Need Voodoo or Spells to Escape Hiccup Hell – Try Hiccupops Instead

If you suffer from chronic hiccups or if you tend to get hiccups in inconvenient situations, you’ve heard a rumor and wondered “does your heart stop when you hiccup?” The answer is a big fat “no,” but hiccups are still a pain in the neck.

Everyone who has ever cursed their diaphragm for contracting and making them look or sound silly now has a healthy and trustworthy alternative outside of your Granny’s advice to “hold your breath.”

Unwrap a Hiccupop. Done. Party On.

What Are Hiccups?

Hiccups happen when your diaphragm contracts. Most often, this happens involuntarily and you can’t stop it because you don’t predict it happening. 

After your diaphragm contracts, your vocal cords contract as well, which results in the classic hiccup sound. 

Everyone hiccups differently and can be at different volumes. Some people may not even make a sound when they hiccup. Even though hiccuping may look different for everyone, it can still be a nuisance that you want to avoid. 

How Do Hiccups Happen?

Hiccups can be caused by a plethora of reasons. The science behind hiccups can be complicated because there are so many different ways they are triggered. 

Excitement and extended laughing can cause hiccups, or even intense crying as well. Anything that exhibits a lot of stress on your body can induce hiccups.

Eating a lot of food or carbonated beverages can also have a hiccup effect. Hiccuping is also a common symptom of alcoholism. Even if you aren’t an alcoholic, intaking too much alcohol on any night can cause hiccups to happen.

Swallowing air by accident can also be a common cause of hiccups. You may not even realize you swallowed air, and that is when hiccups can happen most unexpectedly. 

Central nervous system disorders can also cause chronic hiccups, such as when you have a stroke or brain injury. It can also occur if you have nerve damage in places like your neck or ears.

Everyone gets hiccups for different reasons, but they can get annoying after a while. It’s helpful to know how to stop them. 

How To Prevent Hiccups

There are several natural ways to prevent hiccups. While there are some hiccup remedies that are myths, we’ve collected a list of treatments that are proven to work. If your hiccups persist for several days, however, you should speak to your doctor.

Hold Your Breath

Most people grow up knowing the old holding your breath trick. While not all ancient hiccup remedies tend to work, this one normally does.

Hold your breath for about 20 seconds long (or shorter if you cannot hold it that long). Then, breathe out slowly. This will help relax your diaphragm and should stop the hiccups.

Other breathing exercises can have the same effect. For example, you can breathe in for five seconds, and breathe out for five seconds. This repetitive and meditative breathing will relax you and eventually make the hiccups go away. 

Avoid Certain Beverages

As said earlier, carbonated beverages or drinking too much alcohol can cause hiccups. If you struggle with hiccups, it may be best to avoid carbonated beverages. This doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself every now and then, but avoid drinking them frequently. 

The same goes for alcohol. If you struggle with alcohol addiction and have persistent hiccups, you can talk to your doctor about local resources to help fight your addiction. 

Distract Yourself

Sometimes, just distracting yourself from the hiccups can help stop them. If you are constantly thinking about when the next hiccup will occur, that causes stress on your body and may make them worse. 

Watch your favorite TV show, or play a game. Try to relax and distract yourself instead of focusing on the hiccups. 

Induce Your Gag Reflex

Gagging may help your hiccups to stop too. Put your finger down your throat, but not far enough that it makes you vomit. Your gag reflex will be induced, and then you should practice calm breathing for a few minutes after.

Eventually, you should have control over the hiccups and they should stop. 

Hiccup-Stopping Lollipops

A fun but natural way to stop your hiccups is to suck on lollipops! 

Not just normal lollipops, though–you can actually purchase hiccup-stopping lollipops. At Hiccupops, we offer a variety of flavors for you to choose from at reasonable prices. Hiccupops are made with ingredients that stop your hiccups and relax your breathing. 

These are great to have on hand if you experience random hiccups–especially if you have to go to a conference or event. You don’t want to start hiccuping inside an important meeting. 

What If I Have Chronic Hiccups?

If you have chronic hiccups, which are hiccups that persist for more than two days, then you should contact your doctor immediately. This is because there may be an underlying medical condition causing your hiccups. If this goes untreated, it can potentially become dangerous. 

Your doctor should be able to locate the cause of the hiccups or give you medication to stop them. While the natural ways we have discussed may be your first solution, you may decide you want to try medication instead if they don’t work for you. 

Always consult your doctor first if you have any worries about trying natural remedies. 

Stop Your Hiccups Today

Hiccups can be an annoying nuisance to handle. But, now you know the answer to the question ‘how do hiccups happen’ and how to prevent them. If hiccups are decreasing your quality of life, then you should take steps toward putting an end to them.

Hiccupops offers many different hiccup-stopping lollipops to get you started. Shop our wide collection today!

What Are the Causes of Hiccups?

As already stated, hiccups are when your diaphragm contracts. Your diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle underneath your lungs that moves involuntarily whenever you inhale. This function is necessary because it helps you to bring air into your lungs.

Sometimes, while your diaphragm is doing its job, it either ends up pulling down as you breathe or it your glottis (a space that is right in between your vocal cords) closes up which keeps your system from receiving the air that it needs. This creates a spasm that causes your throat or chest to tighten. And then — a hiccup happens.

While there isn’t really a way to anticipate if one of these things will automatically cause you to end up with a bout of hiccups, there are some proven triggers that typically lead to them.

• Eating or drinking too quickly
• Eating too much food
• Eating spicy food
• Consuming carbonated drinks
• Drinking something that is too hot or cold for your system
• Swallowing too much air at one time
• Inadvertently swallowing air while chewing gum
• Experiencing a sudden change in air temperature
• Being overly excited
• Taking medication that treats anxiety
• Inhaling toxic fumes
• Stress

All of these things can happen to any of us. However, it should go on record that men, people who’ve had abdominal surgery (or recently received general anesthesia), and individuals who experience intense emotions are the most prone to getting hiccups the most often.

Why Do PeopleTend to Get Hiccups When They’re Inebriated?

OK, so what about the people who seem to get hiccups mostly when they are tipsy or drunk? What is the connection between alcohol and hiccups? Good question.

As you’ve already read, drinking too fast can trigger hiccups. Well, if what you’re drinking happens to be an alcoholic beverage, it can irritate your digestive system. Something else that alcohol has the tendency to do is upset your esophagus (the tube that runs from your throat to your stomach). When either of these things happen, that can cause hiccups.

The good news is the remedy for “alcohol hiccups” is pretty much the same as what you should do for any other kind (more on that in a sec). However, it is important to keep in mind that the kind of alcohol that triggers hiccups most often is beer. Not only that but the slower that you drink alcohol, the more you decrease your chances of having hiccups.

What Can You Do to Get Rid of Hiccups?

Now that you know what causes hiccups, you might be thinking, “So, it looks like I shouldn’t have my favorite spicy dish or a tall glass of mineral water anymore.” Things don’t have to be that extreme. Knowing what triggers a hiccup can help you to be less confused when they happen. Still, there are things that you can do to stop them if/when they do.

Short-term, occasional hiccups (ones that only last for a couple of minutes) usually stop on their own. If it’s been a few minutes longer than that and you want to speed up the healing process, here are some things that you can do:

• Eat a teaspoon of white sugar
• Gently tug your tongue outwards
• Lift up your uvula (the hanging piece of flesh that’s in between your tonsils) with a spoon
• Drink a glass of cold, non-carbonated water
• Gargle some water
• Count to five (to relax) and then take deep slow breaths
• Hold your breath
• Breathe into a paper bag
• Bite into a lemon or have a teaspoon of vinegar
• Pull your knees up to your chest

You Can Also Suck on a Lollipop!

Yes, you absolutely read that right. Sucking on a lollipop can help with curing hiccups too. Now before you get too excited about that, you’re not going to get past your hiccups with any old lollipop that you find at your local grocery store. No, there is a specific kind of lollipop that you will need.

It’s called a Hiccupops and some of its users say that it can stop hiccups in a matter of seconds! The science behind Hiccupops is there are specific ingredients in the lollipop that helps to relax your hiccup reflex. Some of them include at-home remedies that we already mentioned like apple cider vinegar and sugar.

Hiccupops currently come in original citrus and sour apple flavors. And, so long as you keep them stored at room temperature, sucking on just one of them should take care of your hiccup problem. How cool is that?

What If None of These Remedies Fix My Hiccups?

In most cases, doing one of the things suggested should get rid of your hiccups. However, if they end up lasting for longer than a couple of days, you may havea serious medical conditioncalled chronic or intractable hiccups. These also happen more often with men. There are other demographics that are more prone to getting them, though:

• Being pregnant
• Having pneumonia
• Consuming an excessive amount of alcohol
• Having some sort of mental health issue
• Experiencing a liver, bowel, or stomach-related illness
• Having nerve damage in your body
• Having cancer

Some of these issues are serious. That’s why, if you’ve had hiccups that have been non-stop for more than 48 hours, it’s important to see a doctor as soon as possible.

Based on their diagnosis, they may prescribe a medication (like chlorpromazine or valproic acid). Sometimes they might suggest seeing an acupuncturist. In some instances, surgery may be required. Or, the underlying condition may need to be treated first.

What Are the Long-Term Effects of Chronic Hiccups?

So, what if you keep experiencing hiccups and you refuse to go to the doctor? Are there some long-term effects that you should be aware of? Good questions.

Aside from the fact that ignoring chronic hiccups could mean that there is an underlying issue that is going untreated, constant hiccups can also prevent you from getting the rest that your body needs. Some people with chronic hiccups end up losing a significant amount of weight. Non-stop, persistent hiccups can also result in serious impacts to quality of life and mental health.

What Might Surprise You About Hiccups

As you’re learning more and more about hiccups, there are also some fun facts that you might interest you:

• The medical term for hiccup is the Latin word singultus. It means “to catch one’s breath while crying”
• Most mammals experience hiccups at one point or another
• Infants hiccup the most often
• Babies also hiccup while they’re in the womb
• Sometimes hiccups will happen 68 times per minute
• The medieval term for hiccups is “hockets”
• The longest case of hiccups lasted for a whopping 68 years

Now That You Know All About Hiccups, What Are You Going to Do About Them?

You’re pretty well-versed in hiccups at this point. And now that you know what they are and how to stop them, it seems like now would be as good a time as any to stack up on a couple of boxes of Hiccupops, wouldn’t you say? That way, you can be prepared for the next time you have an unexpected bout of hiccups.

If you’d like to learn more about Hiccupops and how our product can benefit you, feel free to send us a message at any time. Hiccups are our thing. We’d love to help you out!