Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Really sure? Okay, I'm Josh Clark. That's Chuck Bryant. Hello. I think I said the same thing last time. I think you did. Hello the jerk. I am Hi, Dare that's much better, Chuck, what's up? Spice it up a little bit? It's up. Maybe get the frenic nerve irritated. I'll look at you. Yeah, perfect, so texted hermy Chuck. Now we already did that. Yes, okay, Um, we're talking about hiccups today. Huh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Chuck. What do you know about hiccups? Man? Have you ever had them before? I have, Josh, and I will talk about a famous about of my hiccups later. Okay, when we talk about being drunk? Oh yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, um, But should we go ahead set this up? Yeah? Chuck actually has a fairly ticklish constitution when it comes to hiccups. Uh. And he has in his hand a be brand root beer. Uh. And he's about to open it and try to give himself hiccups because he says that it doesn't take very much that we're gonna see it. That's the brand root beer. Sometimes drinking a carbonated beverage will many times we'll do hiccups. So my goal is to have hiccups through the episode. So we'll see what happens. Okay, here he goes he's he's drinking the root beer. He's chugging the root here right, look at him. Go you go, chuck. Oh, he's got a look of grim determination on his face. He's taking too long tips so far. He's looking at the root beer. Excuse me. And there's a little birth right there. This is hiccups, Chuck, not burpec. I got nothing. We'll keep trying. His eyes are a little watery. Yeah, I feel it. Uh and um he's you can take take it faster, faster, set. He looks pain. He's got some carbonation in his lungs. It looks like, man, that you have to No, no, I don't have to down it. Chug. I have that cold thing now on my chest. Well, actually cold is one way that hiccups are Um activated, I guess yeah, And I think that's what happens when I drink the soda. That's what happens. Yeah, how disappointing. Nine times out of ten, I'll get hiccups the one time I need him, don't worry about. We'll just have Jerry put some hiccups and we'll say, oh, look, listen, there's hiccuping crazy. Let's give some hiccup facts, shall we? Oh? Wait, listener requests, Okay, this is must be fan appreciation. Wait, because we did two in a row. And this is from Jess in Portland's Thank you Jess, and she was all, what up with hiccups? Yo? Is that what she said? Now? All right, Chuck, Yes, sir, did you know that you have a lifelong specific hiccup pattern? I did not till I read this, and that is way cool. Yeah. I don't know what mine is. Oh as far as recognizing it, yeah, yeah, I've never charted mine now, and I couldn't find anything else on some uh you know, an additional outside research hunt. Um, I couldn't find anything on that on specific hiccup patterns, like if there's five or six, or if it's just you know, there's as many as there are people that kind of thing, like your fingerprint, right and snowflakes. Uh. There's also the fact that the average hiccup spell can last for a few minutes to a few hours. I've never had one last a few hours. I start to get angry after a couple of minutes, and I'll just take a huge deep breath and that usually cures it. Actually, yeah, I've got my cures too, but I'll talk about those later. And there's actually, um, you've heard of people who have um horrifically long bouts of hiccups, right, there's actually medical terms for these. If your hiccups have lasted, um, I think longer than forty eight hours, they're called person extant hiccups. I would agree with that. And then if they lasted longer than a month, they're called intractable hiccups. And this is actually I found out, um, that's very prevalent among patients with AIDS. Intractable hiccups are. Yeah, and I found a study that said, uh that at least in one patient, medical marijuana or I guess even just playing marijuana cures it. Interesting. Yeah, they had a patient I think in Spain, had intractable hiccups and tried marijuana for the first time in his life. And uh, it cured it, and then I think twenty four hours later it came back again. The patient used marijuana second time, and that was the hiccups. You know what what people with intractable hiccups called their hiccups? Hell, those both hiccups. I can't get rid of. That's a medical term. Too nice. Wow, Um, my face is bread. I'm blessing a little bit least chuck. There's a question that's plagued human kind? Can you tell us the twenty first century? I said, human kind? Said plagued, plagued, plagued human kind um for millennia, and that's why do we hiccup? And actually we don't have an answer for that, No, we don't know. Uh. The Greek physician Galen hypothesized that it was angry emotions that were created in the stomach coming out. It's a stamp, it's it's a shot at it. Right. I love the Greeks. It's as good as any others. And actually I found another um another explanation that was posited in two thousand three by researchers at the PT. Saltpetriere Hospital in Perry. Thank you. Um. They hypothesized that us hiccup ng is a relic from our time spent in the very distant past as amphibians. They said that there is a very close similarity to gil ventilation, which is how amphibians breathe because they also have lungs, so they have to close their lungs to breathe, but they also they have gills as well, right right, And then the the water has to pass over the guilds without going into the lungs to take a short, quick breath, and the epiglottis closes. And we'll talk about how a hiccup works in a second. But the guil ventilation in amphibians and hiccuping in humans and mammals, by the way, um are very similar. So they went a little further and said, and you know what, here's here's the drum roll part um. The brain circuitry that controls guil ventilation in amphibians is still present in mammals. Yeah, so they're saying that they think that this is a it's a relic leftover from our very very very ancient past, isn't it. You know? What I also thought was interesting was the recapitulation theory, or part of it proposes that fetuses actually use hiccups as part of their respiration before their lungs are fully developed, right, and they actually do. The theory part comes in is to why um, and that is that basically it's that it's it's akin to how we learn to crawl before we learn to walk, or we can crawl before we can walk. We can hiccup before we can breathe. Normally, we should start saying that, you know, you got a hiccup before you can breathe. People get what it would be, like, Hey, we're the woman on the top, you're gonna say that. Um. And that that's actually supported by the fact that premies spend two point five of their little premi life hiccupping, And that's a lot more than regular full term babies. They're sitting there like like they don't have it hard enough up all the time. I weigh three pounds and I'm hiccupping. Give me a break. And apparently UM hormones can play a role in hiccupping. Women who who are in the first two weeks of their mentor will cycle hiccup more UM than pregnant women do. Uh. So, there's a whole grab bag of questions attached to hiccup ng. You're more likely to hit up in the evening exactly, and you hick up less as you get older. Yeah. I think that's all the little factoids. Right, So we've we've got all these this information. No answers whatsoever as to exactly why we hiccup. None, I kind of I subscribe to the recapitulation theory frankly. Yeah, um, but we do know what happens. We do know the physiology of a hiccup, right, Yeah, that's the easy part. And it all comes down to the frenic nerves, which after reading this article I have concluded the frenic nerves are the sissiest nerves of all. Yeah. The vegas nerves are in there too, I found out. Uh they if they get annoyed, and then you can hiccup as well. Right. So the frenic nerve right, Uh, it controls the diaphragm. And the diaphragm is that muscle that goes over your big belly and under your rib cage. You're so it's it's in between the stomach and the abdomen. Right, it goes down when we inhale, ye try, it goes up when we exhale, so it helps out the breathing process. Did you hear that horrible struggle for breath? And it's like yeah. So when we are breathing, we're taking an air through the nose in the mouth, right, and it flows through the pharynx, past the glottis and into the larynx and trachea, which eventually terminate into the lungs. Right, and then it follows a opposite path on the way out as we exhale. That phrenic nerve that controls the diaphragm uh is, as I said, kind of sissy, a little prissy, kind of a punk uh. And any time it gets irritated, well I shouldn't say any time, but when it's irritated, uh, it can induce an abdominal spasms up. Well, that's part of a hiccup. Hiccup is a quick, short breath we take aken because our diaphragm is spasming, right, yes, um. And then what makes the hiccup sound is the epiglottis, that little piece of tissue that covers the glottis and keeps you know, um, this beat brand root beer from going into your lungs when you're drinking it. Yeah, I hate it when that happens, closes all of a sudden and there's your hiccup. That is what a hiccup is, yes, right the end. What are some of the things that can cause that little frenic nerve to throw a tantrum chuck? Well, Josher's there's only a few things that can cause this. Uh. One of the main things that can happen is that you over eat and you've got a full stomach, so you're sollowing too much food or air. Your stomach too stands and gets all fat and it pushes against the frenic nerves and they're like, oh, you ate too much hiccup, right, So that's one way. Another one is, um, add hot food, spicy food to that, and you're you're doubling your chances because it hot foods will irritate your frenic nerves as well. And the last thing is, uh, smoking is not good. Excessive smoking and drinking can also cause hiccups. Or like we propose with my thing with a with a coke and the root beer. Um, a rapid temperature change inside the stomach, like drinking something really cold or really hot, right, So that can all irritate. The little was uh, frandic nerves and frandic almost ad frantic. I think it is a little frandic. If not hysteric, it should be the hysteric nerve, right, and then stress and emotion on the psychological side that can cause them too, and mental illness too. I couldn't find anything on this. I saw a couple of mentions that mental illness uh is linked to hiccups, right, But I couldn't find any um anything further than that. But I did find out that you can use chloropromosine, which is an antipsychotic, to cure long term hiccups. Did you know that? No? I didn't, So that that kind of points to mental illness a little bit or some sort of connection interesting and mental hiccups, Yes, and another layman's term for O c D. Really Yeah, that's a good band name to mental hiccups. Yeah, Actually it's kind of lame. So my story since we brought up the drunk thing was I famously had hiccups in Athens one night, and this is after I graduated. I went back to see the Flaming Lips at forty and I had hiccups for about six hours straight and I had imbibed a bit much, so it was kind of one of those nights. It was. I was the butt of many jokes because I was walking around and kind of doing this and if you know it, it lasted forever. It was awful. What did Wayne Coyne have to say about it? He said, you need to be hit to death in the future head okay, which is one of their albums. That just made that up. Oh he didn't really say that, no, but it is one of their albums. I'm sorry I lie so much to you. Let's say that you've eaten a lot of Indian food, you've smoked a pact cigarettes, drink a cord of crazy Horse, and you followed it with a big old glass of coffee. You have no regard whatsoever for the sensation in your hands, um, and your frenic nerve is going berserk, perserker like a mad Viking. Yeah, mushrooms, Um, what are some of the things you can do aside from taking you know, antipsychotics to cure hiccups? Are we getting into the cures now? Because boy, there's a lot of them, and even if we read twenty we'll get a thousand more from people. I was going to call for it a listener mail. Yeah, we'll get them for sure. Um, there are a few medical things that have been uh well, nothing has been proven to be more effective. It kind of comes down to the person. And I think a lot of it's mental. Well, if you think one of them will work for you, then that's the one you use, and that might work. And people aren't exactly sure how. But mental distraction actually can cure hiccups, right, that's true, especially if somebody comes up to you and demands that you hiccup on the spot. I've never heard that one. Um, you haven't. No, Like, if you've got the hiccups, they'll say, hiccup right, Well, what if you just hiccup? You're like, dude, that's my problem. I'm hiccuping. I didn't say it was good, but I'm just saying it's been shown to cure it in some people. They should go and say, don't hiccup, right, Like I said, I've I've uh, I can draw in a big breath of air and that usually cures it. Right. That's not my method, but I'm gonna I'm gonna save that. Uh. Most of the best home remedies actually work. Stimulate the naso pharynx, and that's a part of the pharynx behind the tonsils and uh like drinking from the opposite side of the glass. You've heard that one. Biting into a lemon or pulling on your tongue sometimes that will actually uh stimulate the naso pharynx and that will work. It's also you can also just do it with your tongue itself, the tip of your tongue, if you rub it against the very back of the roof of your mouth. Yeah, tickling the roof of your mouth. That that can help. It can. It also keeps you from yawning interesting or tickling period. They say, if you're a ticklish person, gets someone to tickle you, and you might just forget about hiccuping. And if you're not a ticklish person, you have no soul. That's true. Uh. Most of the breathing things, um might work because you're actually interrupting your respiratory cycle. So if you do the paperbag trick or down a glass of water really quick, that's that's the reason why that'll work. Mine is I do the same thing with the breath thing, but I don't inhale and take a big breath. I exhale every bit of air I can and then put my hand over my mouth and close my nose and literally go till I'm about to pass out, and then I'll breathe like try and breathe very calmly when I come back, and usually that will work. So you do the exact opposite of what I do. Well, you draw in a big breath and then hold it. You exhale all of your breath. That's what I do. But both ways, I think we're interrupting a respiratory cycle. Chuck, Josh. There's all sorts of medical um treatments, right, Some are some are cool, like antipsychotics or medical marijuana. Yeah. This is if you are have persistent or intractable hiccups. So right, yeah, if you you know, start hiccupping and immediately getting your car and go see a doctor, what's wrong with you? But that being said, uh, it does. It is advised that if you have hiccups that last for forty eight hours, do go see a doctor because it can be kind of a problem when you go see the doctor. In addition to possibly prescribing antipsychotics, medical marijuana depending on your state. Uh. The doctor may also prescribe a digital rectal exam. I think that that kind of falls into the mental distraction category. Really, maybe we're not talking ones and zeros here when we talk about digital we're talking about something you might digits of your hand, might find in prison. Perhaps digits another another term for fingers. Yeah, I don't know why that would work, but apparent I'm telling you it's the mental district You're like, whoa, whoa and what cups? You know have a much bigger problem than hiccuffs. Uh. They will sometimes tap or rub, rub the back of your neck, massage the Cartoyd sinus, which is in your neck charatid. What did I say Cartoyd? Like Cartoyd it is karatid, You're right. Or apply pressure to your eyeball to stimulate the nerves of your diaphragm. But we should also c o a here and say, don't go mashing on your eyeball too hard. That's not very smart. No, you can pull on your tongue, but don't mash your eyeball or sticky sticking your finger in your ears sometimes we'll do it, but also don't stick something foreign in your ear. And uh, you know, massage your brain. You don't want to do that. Nothing bigger than the end of a football, Is that what they say? Really? Yeah? I thought you're just making that up. No. Um. There's also surgery to basically disconnect your frenic nerve or parts of it, make it a little less prissy. Um. And there is also emptying your stomach through a tube inserted into your nose or mouth. That's pretty harsh. I think I'd rather have hiccups. Yeah, I say that, though I've never had them for forty eight hours or more. Though now I can't imagine when you sleep you're still having them in your sleep. That'd be awful. Let's talk about a couple of people who have slept through hiccup bouts. All right, Charles Chucky Osbourne. I don't know that this man had an actual life as far as a quality life goes. Imagine he got used to it. Do you think you would at for sixty eight years? Yes? But isn't it annoying? Though? Isn't the aren't hiccups one of those things that you just can't help but find annoying If somebody around you as hiccups like it almost brings out like this anger response in people when it doesn't go away fast enough. Yeah, it's annoying. But like I said, Charles Osborne had him for sixty eight years. He had him from nineteen twenty two to nineteen nine, and they estimate Guinness season a Guinness Book of course, that he had four hundred and thirty million hiccups over that span. And I'm curious if if he died in nineteen nine and that's that is the end of the run, well, I don't know, or if he was just cured. I'm sure we can find that out. Uh. There was also a Florida teen named Jennifer me She hiccuped for five weeks in two thousand seven. I actually remember that one, and then she was on the Today, so I think really so she stopped for a little while and then they returned a few weeks later, much sure, dismay and um, I think she does not have hiccups any longer though, which is good. Well. Yeah, another couple of people, Josh, another Florida person, Jamie mostly hiccup for eight months, and David Willis of Narrathon Eiland Uh had two unsuccessful surgeries with a five year hiccup or deal. Yeah, that's awful. You have the surgery and it still comes back. Could you imagine anything worse to surgeries and it still comes back. Well, that's what would be worse. If you want to learn more about hiccups, I would recommend pulling your tongue, eating a spoonful of sugar, and moving from Florida drinking moderation. Yes, oh wait, you know what. There was one more that I used to do, and I think this is all mental. I was told that if you strike a match and then put the match out in a in a glass of water and then drink that water real quick, that'll do it. Weird, but I think that's the water drinking method combined with just some mind games personally or sulfur. Well, I thought about that. I don't know if that's true. If you want to learn more about hiccups and see some cool diagrams of a diaphram, you can type in hiccups at the handy search bar at how stuff works dot com, which means this time for listener mail, Josh, I'm gonna call this one goaded into being on listener mail? Goadd go? Did this guy goaded me go? Did basically dared me to put him on listener mail, and you felt for I was like, you know what, dude, I will. You can't. Can't reward that kind of behavior. Reverse I called you Chuck, Okay, Josh and Chuck. I've made no secretive fact that I think your podcasts are great. I've also openly declared a singular mission to achieve global notoriety by getting you guys to say hello to me and listener mail. I don't know about global notoriety. He he was written in a few times and I didn't fall for it, so finally to keep him from emailing me again. That's why I'm reading this. I've noted in recent weeks a pattern in your way to choose you choose your mail. You invariably choose mail from those of younger persuasion, generally in high school or below. So premise one you must be young. I've also noted that you tend to like the mail that is either written poorly or in some form of broken pigeon English. Premise to use bad English. I would also like to suggest that while you are often balanced and seemingly devoid of ego related behavior, uh, you love it when people claim to be a big fan. Well, of course we do. Um, So premise number three, say I'm your number one fan, actually has nothing to do with smail. Uh. Finally, there usually has to be something slightly witty, but not more witty than you. This guy is dead on. Oh that's not true. I love it when people are funnier than me. So premise number four is be smart but not too smart, which is not true. I've come to realize that I am not young. Indeed, I think I'm about your age. My English is pretty good. I did go to university. Some one would expect a certain level of literacy. Uh no, he's not. He's Australian. I am well aware that while a fan, I am most likely not your number one fan. In fact, I'd be very disappointed if I was your number one fan, because I am not that good at being a groupie. Finally, this is the strange one to type out. I think I'm smart, Not Hadrian Collider smart. I've read Chaucer smart, but certainly smart enough to keep up with you guys. Keeping typing that feels weird, he says. So. Not willing to be fraudulent, I will simply continue to send you one off slightly funny things I come across in the hope that one day, just one day, you think of me and say, how low with something funny added mark from originally from Wagga Wagga, Australia, now in Sydney, and now you have to add something funny Wagga water is pretty funny. Perfect. Yeah, thanks Chuck. If you have something funny to say, chuck it on like funny you You can be funnier than us if you dare, uh, send it in an email right. Oh and don't forget if you have like a hiccup remedy, I'm sure we want to hear those. Put in an email to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is that how stuff works dot com. Want more house stuff Works, check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you

Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray. It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know from house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to the podcast. Really sure? Okay, I'm Josh Clark. That's Chuck Bryant. Hello. I think I said the same thing last time. I think you did. Hello the jerk. I am Hi, Dare that's much better, Chuck, what's up? Spice it up a little bit? It's up. Maybe get the frenic nerve irritated. I'll look at you. Yeah, perfect, so texted hermy Chuck. Now we already did that. Yes, okay, Um, we're talking about hiccups today. Huh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Chuck. What do you know about hiccups? Man? Have you ever had them before? I have, Josh, and I will talk about a famous about of my hiccups later. Okay, when we talk about being drunk? Oh yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, um, But should we go ahead set this up? Yeah? Chuck actually has a fairly ticklish constitution when it comes to hiccups. Uh. And he has in his hand a be brand root beer. Uh. And he's about to open it and try to give himself hiccups because he says that it doesn't take very much that we're gonna see it. That's the brand root beer. Sometimes drinking a carbonated beverage will many times we'll do hiccups. So my goal is to have hiccups through the episode. So we'll see what happens. Okay, here he goes he's he's drinking the root beer. He's chugging the root here right, look at him. Go you go, chuck. Oh, he's got a look of grim determination on his face. He's taking too long tips so far. He's looking at the root beer. Excuse me. And there's a little birth right there. This is hiccups, Chuck, not burpec. I got nothing. We'll keep trying. His eyes are a little watery. Yeah, I feel it. Uh and um he's you can take take it faster, faster, set. He looks pain. He's got some carbonation in his lungs. It looks like, man, that you have to No, no, I don't have to down it. Chug. I have that cold thing now on my chest. Well, actually cold is one way that hiccups are Um activated, I guess yeah, And I think that's what happens when I drink the soda. That's what happens. Yeah, how disappointing. Nine times out of ten, I'll get hiccups the one time I need him, don't worry about. We'll just have Jerry put some hiccups and we'll say, oh, look, listen, there's hiccuping crazy. Let's give some hiccup facts, shall we? Oh? Wait, listener requests, Okay, this is must be fan appreciation. Wait, because we did two in a row. And this is from Jess in Portland's Thank you Jess, and she was all, what up with hiccups? Yo? Is that what she said? Now? All right, Chuck, Yes, sir, did you know that you have a lifelong specific hiccup pattern? I did not till I read this, and that is way cool. Yeah. I don't know what mine is. Oh as far as recognizing it, yeah, yeah, I've never charted mine now, and I couldn't find anything else on some uh you know, an additional outside research hunt. Um, I couldn't find anything on that on specific hiccup patterns, like if there's five or six, or if it's just you know, there's as many as there are people that kind of thing, like your fingerprint, right and snowflakes. Uh. There's also the fact that the average hiccup spell can last for a few minutes to a few hours. I've never had one last a few hours. I start to get angry after a couple of minutes, and I'll just take a huge deep breath and that usually cures it. Actually, yeah, I've got my cures too, but I'll talk about those later. And there's actually, um, you've heard of people who have um horrifically long bouts of hiccups, right, there's actually medical terms for these. If your hiccups have lasted, um, I think longer than forty eight hours, they're called person extant hiccups. I would agree with that. And then if they lasted longer than a month, they're called intractable hiccups. And this is actually I found out, um, that's very prevalent among patients with AIDS. Intractable hiccups are. Yeah, and I found a study that said, uh that at least in one patient, medical marijuana or I guess even just playing marijuana cures it. Interesting. Yeah, they had a patient I think in Spain, had intractable hiccups and tried marijuana for the first time in his life. And uh, it cured it, and then I think twenty four hours later it came back again. The patient used marijuana second time, and that was the hiccups. You know what what people with intractable hiccups called their hiccups? Hell, those both hiccups. I can't get rid of. That's a medical term. Too nice. Wow, Um, my face is bread. I'm blessing a little bit least chuck. There's a question that's plagued human kind? Can you tell us the twenty first century? I said, human kind? Said plagued, plagued, plagued human kind um for millennia, and that's why do we hiccup? And actually we don't have an answer for that, No, we don't know. Uh. The Greek physician Galen hypothesized that it was angry emotions that were created in the stomach coming out. It's a stamp, it's it's a shot at it. Right. I love the Greeks. It's as good as any others. And actually I found another um another explanation that was posited in two thousand three by researchers at the PT. Saltpetriere Hospital in Perry. Thank you. Um. They hypothesized that us hiccup ng is a relic from our time spent in the very distant past as amphibians. They said that there is a very close similarity to gil ventilation, which is how amphibians breathe because they also have lungs, so they have to close their lungs to breathe, but they also they have gills as well, right right, And then the the water has to pass over the guilds without going into the lungs to take a short, quick breath, and the epiglottis closes. And we'll talk about how a hiccup works in a second. But the guil ventilation in amphibians and hiccuping in humans and mammals, by the way, um are very similar. So they went a little further and said, and you know what, here's here's the drum roll part um. The brain circuitry that controls guil ventilation in amphibians is still present in mammals. Yeah, so they're saying that they think that this is a it's a relic leftover from our very very very ancient past, isn't it. You know? What I also thought was interesting was the recapitulation theory, or part of it proposes that fetuses actually use hiccups as part of their respiration before their lungs are fully developed, right, and they actually do. The theory part comes in is to why um, and that is that basically it's that it's it's akin to how we learn to crawl before we learn to walk, or we can crawl before we can walk. We can hiccup before we can breathe. Normally, we should start saying that, you know, you got a hiccup before you can breathe. People get what it would be, like, Hey, we're the woman on the top, you're gonna say that. Um. And that that's actually supported by the fact that premies spend two point five of their little premi life hiccupping, And that's a lot more than regular full term babies. They're sitting there like like they don't have it hard enough up all the time. I weigh three pounds and I'm hiccupping. Give me a break. And apparently UM hormones can play a role in hiccupping. Women who who are in the first two weeks of their mentor will cycle hiccup more UM than pregnant women do. Uh. So, there's a whole grab bag of questions attached to hiccup ng. You're more likely to hit up in the evening exactly, and you hick up less as you get older. Yeah. I think that's all the little factoids. Right, So we've we've got all these this information. No answers whatsoever as to exactly why we hiccup. None, I kind of I subscribe to the recapitulation theory frankly. Yeah, um, but we do know what happens. We do know the physiology of a hiccup, right, Yeah, that's the easy part. And it all comes down to the frenic nerves, which after reading this article I have concluded the frenic nerves are the sissiest nerves of all. Yeah. The vegas nerves are in there too, I found out. Uh they if they get annoyed, and then you can hiccup as well. Right. So the frenic nerve right, Uh, it controls the diaphragm. And the diaphragm is that muscle that goes over your big belly and under your rib cage. You're so it's it's in between the stomach and the abdomen. Right, it goes down when we inhale, ye try, it goes up when we exhale, so it helps out the breathing process. Did you hear that horrible struggle for breath? And it's like yeah. So when we are breathing, we're taking an air through the nose in the mouth, right, and it flows through the pharynx, past the glottis and into the larynx and trachea, which eventually terminate into the lungs. Right, and then it follows a opposite path on the way out as we exhale. That phrenic nerve that controls the diaphragm uh is, as I said, kind of sissy, a little prissy, kind of a punk uh. And any time it gets irritated, well I shouldn't say any time, but when it's irritated, uh, it can induce an abdominal spasms up. Well, that's part of a hiccup. Hiccup is a quick, short breath we take aken because our diaphragm is spasming, right, yes, um. And then what makes the hiccup sound is the epiglottis, that little piece of tissue that covers the glottis and keeps you know, um, this beat brand root beer from going into your lungs when you're drinking it. Yeah, I hate it when that happens, closes all of a sudden and there's your hiccup. That is what a hiccup is, yes, right the end. What are some of the things that can cause that little frenic nerve to throw a tantrum chuck? Well, Josher's there's only a few things that can cause this. Uh. One of the main things that can happen is that you over eat and you've got a full stomach, so you're sollowing too much food or air. Your stomach too stands and gets all fat and it pushes against the frenic nerves and they're like, oh, you ate too much hiccup, right, So that's one way. Another one is, um, add hot food, spicy food to that, and you're you're doubling your chances because it hot foods will irritate your frenic nerves as well. And the last thing is, uh, smoking is not good. Excessive smoking and drinking can also cause hiccups. Or like we propose with my thing with a with a coke and the root beer. Um, a rapid temperature change inside the stomach, like drinking something really cold or really hot, right, So that can all irritate. The little was uh, frandic nerves and frandic almost ad frantic. I think it is a little frandic. If not hysteric, it should be the hysteric nerve, right, and then stress and emotion on the psychological side that can cause them too, and mental illness too. I couldn't find anything on this. I saw a couple of mentions that mental illness uh is linked to hiccups, right, But I couldn't find any um anything further than that. But I did find out that you can use chloropromosine, which is an antipsychotic, to cure long term hiccups. Did you know that? No? I didn't, So that that kind of points to mental illness a little bit or some sort of connection interesting and mental hiccups, Yes, and another layman's term for O c D. Really Yeah, that's a good band name to mental hiccups. Yeah, Actually it's kind of lame. So my story since we brought up the drunk thing was I famously had hiccups in Athens one night, and this is after I graduated. I went back to see the Flaming Lips at forty and I had hiccups for about six hours straight and I had imbibed a bit much, so it was kind of one of those nights. It was. I was the butt of many jokes because I was walking around and kind of doing this and if you know it, it lasted forever. It was awful. What did Wayne Coyne have to say about it? He said, you need to be hit to death in the future head okay, which is one of their albums. That just made that up. Oh he didn't really say that, no, but it is one of their albums. I'm sorry I lie so much to you. Let's say that you've eaten a lot of Indian food, you've smoked a pact cigarettes, drink a cord of crazy Horse, and you followed it with a big old glass of coffee. You have no regard whatsoever for the sensation in your hands, um, and your frenic nerve is going berserk, perserker like a mad Viking. Yeah, mushrooms, Um, what are some of the things you can do aside from taking you know, antipsychotics to cure hiccups? Are we getting into the cures now? Because boy, there's a lot of them, and even if we read twenty we'll get a thousand more from people. I was going to call for it a listener mail. Yeah, we'll get them for sure. Um, there are a few medical things that have been uh well, nothing has been proven to be more effective. It kind of comes down to the person. And I think a lot of it's mental. Well, if you think one of them will work for you, then that's the one you use, and that might work. And people aren't exactly sure how. But mental distraction actually can cure hiccups, right, that's true, especially if somebody comes up to you and demands that you hiccup on the spot. I've never heard that one. Um, you haven't. No, Like, if you've got the hiccups, they'll say, hiccup right, Well, what if you just hiccup? You're like, dude, that's my problem. I'm hiccuping. I didn't say it was good, but I'm just saying it's been shown to cure it in some people. They should go and say, don't hiccup, right, Like I said, I've I've uh, I can draw in a big breath of air and that usually cures it. Right. That's not my method, but I'm gonna I'm gonna save that. Uh. Most of the best home remedies actually work. Stimulate the naso pharynx, and that's a part of the pharynx behind the tonsils and uh like drinking from the opposite side of the glass. You've heard that one. Biting into a lemon or pulling on your tongue sometimes that will actually uh stimulate the naso pharynx and that will work. It's also you can also just do it with your tongue itself, the tip of your tongue, if you rub it against the very back of the roof of your mouth. Yeah, tickling the roof of your mouth. That that can help. It can. It also keeps you from yawning interesting or tickling period. They say, if you're a ticklish person, gets someone to tickle you, and you might just forget about hiccuping. And if you're not a ticklish person, you have no soul. That's true. Uh. Most of the breathing things, um might work because you're actually interrupting your respiratory cycle. So if you do the paperbag trick or down a glass of water really quick, that's that's the reason why that'll work. Mine is I do the same thing with the breath thing, but I don't inhale and take a big breath. I exhale every bit of air I can and then put my hand over my mouth and close my nose and literally go till I'm about to pass out, and then I'll breathe like try and breathe very calmly when I come back, and usually that will work. So you do the exact opposite of what I do. Well, you draw in a big breath and then hold it. You exhale all of your breath. That's what I do. But both ways, I think we're interrupting a respiratory cycle. Chuck, Josh. There's all sorts of medical um treatments, right, Some are some are cool, like antipsychotics or medical marijuana. Yeah. This is if you are have persistent or intractable hiccups. So right, yeah, if you you know, start hiccupping and immediately getting your car and go see a doctor, what's wrong with you? But that being said, uh, it does. It is advised that if you have hiccups that last for forty eight hours, do go see a doctor because it can be kind of a problem when you go see the doctor. In addition to possibly prescribing antipsychotics, medical marijuana depending on your state. Uh. The doctor may also prescribe a digital rectal exam. I think that that kind of falls into the mental distraction category. Really, maybe we're not talking ones and zeros here when we talk about digital we're talking about something you might digits of your hand, might find in prison. Perhaps digits another another term for fingers. Yeah, I don't know why that would work, but apparent I'm telling you it's the mental district You're like, whoa, whoa and what cups? You know have a much bigger problem than hiccuffs. Uh. They will sometimes tap or rub, rub the back of your neck, massage the Cartoyd sinus, which is in your neck charatid. What did I say Cartoyd? Like Cartoyd it is karatid, You're right. Or apply pressure to your eyeball to stimulate the nerves of your diaphragm. But we should also c o a here and say, don't go mashing on your eyeball too hard. That's not very smart. No, you can pull on your tongue, but don't mash your eyeball or sticky sticking your finger in your ears sometimes we'll do it, but also don't stick something foreign in your ear. And uh, you know, massage your brain. You don't want to do that. Nothing bigger than the end of a football, Is that what they say? Really? Yeah? I thought you're just making that up. No. Um. There's also surgery to basically disconnect your frenic nerve or parts of it, make it a little less prissy. Um. And there is also emptying your stomach through a tube inserted into your nose or mouth. That's pretty harsh. I think I'd rather have hiccups. Yeah, I say that, though I've never had them for forty eight hours or more. Though now I can't imagine when you sleep you're still having them in your sleep. That'd be awful. Let's talk about a couple of people who have slept through hiccup bouts. All right, Charles Chucky Osbourne. I don't know that this man had an actual life as far as a quality life goes. Imagine he got used to it. Do you think you would at for sixty eight years? Yes? But isn't it annoying? Though? Isn't the aren't hiccups one of those things that you just can't help but find annoying If somebody around you as hiccups like it almost brings out like this anger response in people when it doesn't go away fast enough. Yeah, it's annoying. But like I said, Charles Osborne had him for sixty eight years. He had him from nineteen twenty two to nineteen nine, and they estimate Guinness season a Guinness Book of course, that he had four hundred and thirty million hiccups over that span. And I'm curious if if he died in nineteen nine and that's that is the end of the run, well, I don't know, or if he was just cured. I'm sure we can find that out. Uh. There was also a Florida teen named Jennifer me She hiccuped for five weeks in two thousand seven. I actually remember that one, and then she was on the Today, so I think really so she stopped for a little while and then they returned a few weeks later, much sure, dismay and um, I think she does not have hiccups any longer though, which is good. Well. Yeah, another couple of people, Josh, another Florida person, Jamie mostly hiccup for eight months, and David Willis of Narrathon Eiland Uh had two unsuccessful surgeries with a five year hiccup or deal. Yeah, that's awful. You have the surgery and it still comes back. Could you imagine anything worse to surgeries and it still comes back. Well, that's what would be worse. If you want to learn more about hiccups, I would recommend pulling your tongue, eating a spoonful of sugar, and moving from Florida drinking moderation. Yes, oh wait, you know what. There was one more that I used to do, and I think this is all mental. I was told that if you strike a match and then put the match out in a in a glass of water and then drink that water real quick, that'll do it. Weird, but I think that's the water drinking method combined with just some mind games personally or sulfur. Well, I thought about that. I don't know if that's true. If you want to learn more about hiccups and see some cool diagrams of a diaphram, you can type in hiccups at the handy search bar at how stuff works dot com, which means this time for listener mail, Josh, I'm gonna call this one goaded into being on listener mail? Goadd go? Did this guy goaded me go? Did basically dared me to put him on listener mail, and you felt for I was like, you know what, dude, I will. You can't. Can't reward that kind of behavior. Reverse I called you Chuck, Okay, Josh and Chuck. I've made no secretive fact that I think your podcasts are great. I've also openly declared a singular mission to achieve global notoriety by getting you guys to say hello to me and listener mail. I don't know about global notoriety. He he was written in a few times and I didn't fall for it, so finally to keep him from emailing me again. That's why I'm reading this. I've noted in recent weeks a pattern in your way to choose you choose your mail. You invariably choose mail from those of younger persuasion, generally in high school or below. So premise one you must be young. I've also noted that you tend to like the mail that is either written poorly or in some form of broken pigeon English. Premise to use bad English. I would also like to suggest that while you are often balanced and seemingly devoid of ego related behavior, uh, you love it when people claim to be a big fan. Well, of course we do. Um, So premise number three, say I'm your number one fan, actually has nothing to do with smail. Uh. Finally, there usually has to be something slightly witty, but not more witty than you. This guy is dead on. Oh that's not true. I love it when people are funnier than me. So premise number four is be smart but not too smart, which is not true. I've come to realize that I am not young. Indeed, I think I'm about your age. My English is pretty good. I did go to university. Some one would expect a certain level of literacy. Uh no, he's not. He's Australian. I am well aware that while a fan, I am most likely not your number one fan. In fact, I'd be very disappointed if I was your number one fan, because I am not that good at being a groupie. Finally, this is the strange one to type out. I think I'm smart, Not Hadrian Collider smart. I've read Chaucer smart, but certainly smart enough to keep up with you guys. Keeping typing that feels weird, he says. So. Not willing to be fraudulent, I will simply continue to send you one off slightly funny things I come across in the hope that one day, just one day, you think of me and say, how low with something funny added mark from originally from Wagga Wagga, Australia, now in Sydney, and now you have to add something funny Wagga water is pretty funny. Perfect. Yeah, thanks Chuck. If you have something funny to say, chuck it on like funny you You can be funnier than us if you dare, uh, send it in an email right. Oh and don't forget if you have like a hiccup remedy, I'm sure we want to hear those. Put in an email to stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, is that how stuff works dot com. Want more house stuff Works, check out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com home page. Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you