Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good day today? For everyone who spends time to read through my blog, I want to say a big thank you to you. Today, I want to discuss something that a lot of us do not take serious, it happens almost every time, and we just overlook it because it is involuntary. Today, I will be discussing Hiccups, I hope you enjoy reading and learning at the same time.
I love children a lot, and growing up, I would go visit people who just delivered children, and when I get to the cradle, I would also see a white thread, or wool on the infant's head. It is very common among the Yoruba tribe. My grandmother would say it was going to prevent the child from having hiccups (share with me if you are African, and your parents ever told you that the threads on infant's head was meant to prevent the child from having hiccups). Well, while the thread believes has been a magical solution for hiccups for centuries in Africa, I will be explaining what you really need to know about hiccup as a scientist.
First, let me explain the process of breathing in a very short note. Breathing requires the lungs, but the lungs alone cannot make the process successful. When you breath-in through your nose or in some case your mouth, the air move through the Laryngeal prominence (Adam's apple) to get to the Trachea, where the air goes into the bronchi (which are the left and right bronchus), each of the bronchus goes to each lung. The left bronchus is steep and goes to the right lungs, which has three lobes, while the left bronchus is curved, as it goes inferiorly to the aorta to reach the left lung which has two lobes. The bronchus divides into smaller branches, known as the Lobar Bronchi. Each lobar bronchus goes into a lobe of the lung, and there are three lobar bronchi in the right, and two lober bronchi in the left. The Lobar bronchi goes to divide into more narrow branches known as the segmental bronchi which supply different segments of the lungs, and the segmental bronchi carries a branch of the pulmonary artery which takes blood to the lungs from the right chamber of the heart for oxygenation. The pulmonary artery doesn't supply oxygenated blood to the bronchi structure, it is done by the bronchi artery. The air moves from the segmented bronchi to the terminal bronchioles, the to the respiratory bronchioles, then to the alveoli.
While the process of taking in air has been explained, it is important to know that the Diaphragm which separates the thoracic cavity from the abdominal cavity. When we breath, the Diaphragm contracts, making the diaphragm to move downwards, thereby creating space for the lungs to expand. Surrounding the lungs are the ribs, which have intercostal muscles which contracts when we breath, thereby expanding the chest wall up and outwards, to allow more space for the lungs to expand during breathing in.
Hiccups occur when the diaphragm experiences spasm thereby causing it to contract involuntarily. While hiccup really doesn't have any specific time to end or any special cure, in most cases it goes by itself but it has been documented to exist for a long period of time in some cases such as that of Charles Osborne who had an extensive hiccup for 68 years. There is no actual physiological reason for hiccups. The phrenic nerve is responsible for the sending message from the brain to the diaphragm telling it to contract, and the Vagus nerve which sends message from the brain stem to the esophagus and vocal cord, causing it to close. These two nerves sending an irregular message, causes the diaphragm to contract irregularly, and the glottis to open and close immediately air goes in, in a very short period of time, which causes the "hic" sound.
Hiccup according to some theories is believed to start in the womb, as the fetus begin to use its diaphragm for breathing by contracting the diaphragm in a process to practice breathing. Another theory goes with hiccup being a process to remove trapped air from the stomach.
When hiccups happen in the short term, there are several ways to get rid of it and one of it is Vagus nerve stimulation, using the Valsalva maneuver, where there is a forced expiration against a closed glottis, thereby increasing the intrathoracic pressure. another ways hiccup can be gotten rid off include Carotid Sinus Massage. On a regular note, the Hiccup often go away by itself without any much stress, just takes time and patience before the body resets itself.
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