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Written by | Ah Xian
Proofreading | Cloud
When you suddenly start hiccups, do you always feel that it is annoying to go on and on, as if it will go on and on? But it didn't take long for it to magically disappear again, and you no longer remember such a trivial thing as a hiccup.
However, for an old American named Charles Osborne, the hiccups not only lasted 68 years, but also allowed him to win the Guinness Book of World Records in one fell swoop. What's going on here?
1978 Newspaper Report on Charles |
In 1922, at the age of 28, Charles, a local farmer, fell while weighing a pig intended to be slaughtered, and his long career of hiccups began. Charles, who traveled to Omaha, Nebraska for special treatment after his injury, believes that when Charles fell, a small area of his brain was destroyed that would have inhibited his hiccup response.
Hiccups are uncontrolled twitching or sudden movements of the diaphragm and are a common physiological phenomenon. The diaphragm is a membranous musculature between the chest and abdomen, which is placed flat inside the body like a large disc separating the chest and abdomen and moving up and down with breathing. If the diaphragm spasms, air is drawn into the throat, causing the vocal cords to close quickly, and a "hiccups" sound occurs.
膈肌在打嗝时的作用｜Wikimedia
There are many causes of hiccups, such as eating too quickly, changes in outside temperature, drinking alcohol or carbonated beverages, sudden excitement or nervousness, metabolic disorders, stomach bloating, and suffering from a disease that irritates the diaphragm...... Most cases the hiccups go away on their own after a few minutes, but in rare cases, they can last for days or months. Long-term hiccups not only affect sleep, but can also lead to weight loss and mental exhaustion.
Charles' treatment in Omaha was effective at first, but when he got home, he began to hiccup again. Charles, who has been with hiccups for a lifetime, has also learned how to stop making any sounds when hiccups and reduce the annoyance to those around him. Since Charles hiccups 20 to 40 times per minute, it not only affects his sleep, but also his enjoyment of food - from the early 70s of the 20th century, Charles had to put his meals in a blender and beat them into a paste to "eat".
Hiccup~|Gifer
Many doctors tried to help Charles with his hiccups and took some rather extreme measures. It is said that a doctor who had Charles inhale carbon monoxide and oxygen to "cure" his hiccups, and that was successful, but the method had a fatal problem, and the doctor could not determine the safe amount of carbon monoxide to inhale. After Charles's case spread, he received about 4,000 letters of condolence, many of whom offered very effective methods for themselves, but none of them worked for Charles.
These quick hiccup remedies include holding your breath, breathing into a paper bag, bending over for a cup of hot water, or even being suddenly startled (do you have any hiccup tips to share? However, there is no reliable scientific support for these local methods, and there are great individual differences, sometimes useful, sometimes not. Dr. Ali Seifi, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Texas at St. Anthony, speculated that Charles suffered a minor rib injury in a 1922 accident and that his lower ribs were attached to the diaphragm, which damage may have been responsible for the endless hiccups.
Do seemingly mundane tools really work (?)|Ali Seif
Dr. Saifi invented the Forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool (FISST) in 2021 in an effort to address short-term hiccups in people. The main part of the device is a plastic tube with a mouthpiece at one end and a pressure valve at the other. To operate the tool, simply insert the lower end of the straw into a glass of water, "firmly" suck the water through the nozzle, and swallow the liquid. Dr. Saifi said that with FISST once or twice, the hiccups stopped. The action of absorbing water stimulates the phrenic nerve (which sends motor signals to the diaphragm), while the action of swallowing stimulates the vagus nerve (which helps control the unconscious activity of the digestive tract and connects to the cartilage of the epiglottis).
(Image source network)
"When we keep these two nerves busy with different duties, they don't have time to hiccup. ”
To test the device, researchers ran a campaign in 2020 where volunteers could get a free FISST to try out. A total of 249 participants participated in the study, and more than 90% of participants considered FISST to be superior to home therapy in terms of both effectiveness and feasibility.
Dr. Ali Seifi also patented the tool and gave it the more catchy name "HiccAway", which costs $14 per unit
Even so, there has been little real progress in tackling the problem of chronic hiccups. One morning in February 1990, Old Man Charles suddenly stopped hiccups for unknown reasons. However, the blissful time without hiccups did not last long, and about a year later, he died.
Someone once calculated that Charles had more than 420 million hiccups in his lifetime. Despite this frustrating bug in his life, he managed to live a normal life – married twice, had eight children, and made a living selling farm machinery and livestock, albeit with constant hiccups.
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Resources:
[1] https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/67619-longest-attack-of-hiccups
[2]https://www.mayoclinic.org/zh-hans/diseases-conditions/hiccups/symptoms-causes/syc-20352613
[3]https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-curious-case-of-charles-osborne-who-hiccuped-for-68-years-straight-180980232/
[4]https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17434440.2023.2283167