Hiccups: The practical joke the body plays on itself!

Conor Lawless

How are hiccups gross? I'll tell you in a moment. But first, I have to say that your lungs are totally stuck-up.

Look at them! Lungs act like they want nothing to do with your digestive system! Your lungs probably think they’re great because they breathe pure, sweet air, while your guts are trying to deal with corn-nuts.

But every so often, something called the "diaphragm" tries to keep things real by playing a little prank on your lungs. Your diaphragm is one of your biggest, most important muscles. Located between your lungs and your stomach, it’s responsible for getting your lungs to breathe in and out. 

But once in a while, your diaphragm goes a little haywire. It starts forcing your lungs to breathe in a wacky new rhythm that doesn’t make any sense: Hiccups!

Angie Garrett

Hiccups can get caused in a lot of ways, and not all of them are understood. Some people get hiccups after eating spicy food or drinking fizzy drinks. (I know I do!) Other people get hiccups when they lift something, talk too much, or for no reason at all!

As for that name: Way at the back of your throat is a triangular flap of skin and cartilage. It’s called the epiglottis. Isn’t that cute? Anyway, it covers your windpipe so that liquid doesn’t get in your lungs when you’re drinking. 

And when you have the hiccups, and you make that hiccupping sound, that’s your epiglottis flopping open and shut!

If you’re wondering how any of this is gross, listen: If I get the hiccups, I have to get RID of them right away, or else they can go on for hours, and they get more and more violent. Then I barf!

My usual methods for getting rid of the hiccups are sipping water out of a cup backwards OR sucking on a sugar cube. 

Maks Karochkin

But the other day, I got the hiccups. I had no cup or sugar cubes, and my hiccups were growing in power. Nooo! Then my wife then came quietly up behind me and SCREAMED as loud as she could.

My heart leapt in my throat and I jumped up. “What’s wrong?” I cried. 

She was looking at me with a strange expression of victory, and then she exulted, “They’re gone! It worked!”

See, my wife had always wanted to see if it was possible to scare the hiccups out of someone. And for the records, it IS possible. 

Of course, you might also give an innocent victim a heart attack, but that’s a small price to pay!