Hello again! Hope you all had a fantastic September!
I am afraid, dear reader, that I have the hiccups. Again. For the last six months or so I get them almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day, I get stuck inhaling whatever food/drink/gum that was in my mouth. Yum, right?
But while it has this obvious irritant, it does have at least one upside.
Laughter.
It doesn't matter who it is, it seems that nothing lightens a atmosphere better than a badly timed hiccup that is a cross between a donkey and a strangled cat. Last night during Family Home evening, we started our reading ten minutes late because even mom and dad were gripping their sides. Meanwhile I tried to smother myself.
But what are hiccups, I began to wonder. And where did they come from? These questions nagged at me until I could stand it no longer. I had to know.
THE HICCUPS: A study in synopsis
A hiccup is a contraction of the diaphragm that repeats several times per minute. In humans, the abrupt rush of air into the lungs causes the epiglottis to close, creating a "hic" sound.
- The medical term, singultus, is thought to have originated from the Latin, singult, which translates roughly as "the act of catching one's breath while sobbing.
- A bout of hiccups, in general, resolves itself without intervention
- Some doctors recommend that you put your fingers in your ears to stop hiccups.
- Sticking out your tongue and yanking on it may stop hiccups.
- If you eat fast, you are probably not chewing food thoroughly, which seems to cause hiccups.
- American man Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 68 years, from 1922 to 1990, and was entered in the Guinness World Records as the man with the longest attack of hiccups.
I found all of this fascinating, though I guess a lot of people(possibly you) do not. But hey, people surprise me every day. :)
Later!
Your writer,
Cody <3 <3