The Longest Hiccups
It was reported in 2007 that a certain 19-year old Florida girl, Jennifer Mee was hiccuping 50 times per minute for five weeks while in Britain, Christopher Sands had hiccups for almost three years. The Guinness of Book of World Records named American Charles Osborne as the man who had the longest attack of hiccups, which happened for 68 years, from 1922 to 1990. It was said that he was hiccuping 40 times per minute, and in later years 20 times per minute. Hence, the estimation was that during the entire duration of the attack, Osborne hiccupped 430 million times. Although these events have actually happened, doctors maintain that hiccups generally last for a few minutes only. This is the reason why hiccups are best left untreated.
Despite several attempts, the medical profession has not exactly identified the causes of hiccups. The closest that the profession has come up with is its description of the body mechanism during the occurrence of a hiccup. Hiccup has been described as an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm. When the nerve controlling the diaphragm gets irritated, air rapidly gets into the lungs, causing the closing of the vocal cords, and thereby resulting to the production of the characteristic hiccup sound. There have been no medically established symptoms or signs of an incoming hiccup, but speculations revolve around the swallowing of air, usually due to the person’s eating and drinking habits. It is alleged that when a person overeats, eats a lot of spicy and hot food, eats too quickly, or drink too much alcohol and carbonated beverages, swallowing of air likely happens, which may eventually lead to hiccuping. In the cases of recorded long attack of hiccups or chronic hiccups, mostly were linked to a serious illness. While Osborne’s hiccups just suddenly disappeared, and said to have no serious relation to any illness, a neurologist suggested that Mee’s case was due to Tourette Syndrome, which is characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic. Sands’ hiccups, however, was eventually discovered to be due to a tumor on the part of the brain.
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