2023-11-19 09:02:39
You were having a good time with friends when you were hit by hiccups. After a few minutes, it becomes painful. Beyond half an hour, it is tiring enough to ruin your evening. However annoying it may be, this phenomenon nevertheless seems… perfectly useless: we understand its origins, but not its purpose. All the more reason to get angry, right?
The culprit: your phrenic nerves
But what are these phrenic nerves and why do they persist in ruining our lives? Their usefulness: irrigation of the diaphragm. But let them get carried away and you’re in for a bad time. The cause: a dilation of the stomach, overconsumption of alcohol, a sudden change in temperature, a mood swing, even… It’s because they are sensitive, our phrenic nerves…
And until when?
A hiccup attack rarely lasts more than a few minutes. We all know grandma’s tricks to put an end to it: a good big scare, drink a glass of water straight down while holding your nose, hold your breath as long as possible… In reality, none of these methods work. has been validated by science, but if one has already worked for you, don’t deprive yourself of it.
The hell of chronic hiccups
If a quarter of an hour of hiccups gets on your nerves, imagine your state of exhaustion if the attack lasted 48 hours or more. From there, we talk about persistent hiccups. It then becomes urgent to consult a doctor, otherwise you risk falling into so-called refractory hiccups, which will affect your sleep and your quality of life.
The longest hiccup in the world
68 years of hiccups: that’s what happened to poor Charles Osborne, an American who hiccupped continuously between 1922 and 1990. His illness certainly earned him fame and a few TV appearances, but it’s easy to imagine his relief when it suddenly stopped, just over a year before his death. He will have at least experienced a brief respite…
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