Is it possible to have hiccups forever

Sleeping and eating adjustments are often needed to cope with the condition. The cause is not always apparent, but chronic hiccups are often related to an underlying medical issue. In this article, we look at what could cause chronic hiccups, along with steps that can be taken to treat them. A hiccup is caused by an uncontrolled spasm of the diaphragm, followed by the vocal cords closing quickly and making a distinctive sound.

There is no clear cause of hiccups, but excitement, stress , or consuming specific food or drinks, such as fizzy soda, may trigger them. Hiccups usually go away within a few minutes, but occasionally they may affect someone for hours. Hiccups lasting longer than 48 hours are classed as chronic and considered a serious medical condition. In addition to being incredibly irritating, chronic hiccups often disrupt sleep and can make it difficult to eat or drink.

They can sometimes have serious consequences, such as exhaustion, dehydration , and weight loss. Although chronic hiccups have no clear cause, medication or a health condition could be to blame. While chronic hiccups are easy to diagnose, finding a possible underlying cause can take much longer and may not always be possible. A hiccup is partly a spasm of the diaphragm, so conditions that irritate or inflame this part of the body, such as pneumonia or pleurisy , could be a factor in chronic hiccups.

The nerve that controls breathing may be damaged or irritated. Pressure could also have been placed on a nerve elsewhere in the body due to a change in the body, such as pregnancy or a tumor growing. The part of the brain that controls unconscious actions, such as breathing, can stop working properly, perhaps after a stroke or head injury. Diseases affecting the central nervous system , such as multiple sclerosis , could have the same effect.

Chronic hiccuping may be a symptom of a gastrointestinal disease, which affects the stomach, gullet, large and small intestine, liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. Some examples include:. There have been some reports of people developing chronic hiccups after undergoing brain surgery and gastrointestinal procedures, such as gastroscopy. These reports suggest that medical interventions on parts of the body associated with hiccups could trigger the condition. Some medications are linked to chronic hiccups.

There's often no obvious reason why you get hiccups, but some people find certain things trigger their hiccups, such as:. In rare cases, hiccups that last longer than 48 hours can be due to a medical condition or a medicine you're taking. The GP will want to find out if your hiccups are caused by a health condition or medicine you're taking.

And that doesn't really say much. To know if something actually works, doctors need to perform a controlled medical trial where half the people receive the treatment in question and half receive a placebo for comparison. And hiccups just haven't been a hot area for such trials, which can also be fairly expensive to do.

One recent systematic review of previous medical studies concluded: "We searched for good quality studies that involved adult patients 18 or older who had experienced hiccups for 48 hours or more. Our conclusion is that there is insufficient evidence to recommend a particular treatment for hiccups. So if you end up with seriously intractable hiccups that have gone on for a really long time, doctors will pretty much just try a bunch of random things.

They might suction out your stomach or try various drugs. And they'll hope something works. They'll also look for underlying health problems that could be related to this hiccuping annoyance. Some doctors, when less invasive treatments have failed, have attempted to stimulate the vagus nerve directly with an electrical implant or used an injection of an anesthetic to block the phrenic nerve, which controls the diaphragm. And they've reported a few cases where this has worked.

People have floated all kinds of ideas for why hiccuping exists, including some new ones in recent years. However, just because they're newer doesn't mean they're better. Frankly, at this point, they're all conjecture. One published essay presents the hypothesis that it's an evolutionary holdover from tadpole development.

At a certain stage, tadpoles have both gills and lungs, which leads to some interesting breathing gymnastics. Another is that hiccups are a burp-like reflex that used to help suckling baby mammals get rid of extra air in their stomachs. And there are many others. Those irritants can include:.

The actual mechanisms behind why these factors can cause hiccups are a little less clear. Hiccups that last longer than 48 hours tend to have underlying factors, like nerve damage or irritation from gastroesophageal reflux , which happens when stomach acid backs up into your esophagus, causing heartburn. Metabolic conditions can also screw with your hiccup reflex. For example, people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes might experience damage to their vagus nerves, which can influence how well their bodies regulate hiccups.

Some of those include meningitis and a traumatic brain injury, the Mayo Clinic says. Various drugs, including tranquilizers and steroids, can also contribute to hiccups. That said, many doctors swear by these methods for how to get rid of hiccups, courtesy of the U. National Library of Medicine , the Cleveland Clinic , and various pieces of research studying how to get rid of hiccups:. Sip water. Thum, adding that this works with her patients the majority of the time.

Or drink water quickly. Hold your breath. Holding your breath may work in the same way as sipping water, by pacing your nerve impulses to your diaphragm and hopefully stopping your hiccup reflex as a result.

Have someone surprise you.