Why do we hiccup?

how and why do we hiccup?
Answer:
Hiccups Causes

Many conditions are associated with hiccups, but none has been shown to be the cause of hiccups.

If you eat too fast, you can swallow air along with your food and end up with a case of the hiccups.
Any other practices that might irritate the diaphragm such as eating too much (especially fatty foods) or drinking too much (drunk people hiccup) can make you prone to having hiccups.
In these instances, your stomach, which sits underneath and adjacent to the diaphragm, is distended or stretched. Because they occur in relation to eating and drinking, hiccups are sometimes thought to be a reflex to protect you from choking

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It is a spasm of the diaphragm.

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Its your diaphragm going into spasm. The diaphragm sits below your lungs which is why, if you draw in a deep breath and hold it for as long as you can it stops the spasm.eventually!

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actually, it's swallowing too much air. i drink a lot of water to get rid of mine.

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When u rush a solid food, like when u take a full spoon, and u take a heavy gulp of a substance, or even laughing 2u much, causes hiccup.
What u have 2 do is 2 drink plenty of water or u hold ur breathe 4 a long period of time (as long as u can).

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A hiccup or hiccough (normally pronounced "HICK-up" (IPA: [藞h瑟.k蕦p]) regardless of spelling) is an involuntary spasm of the diaphragm; typically this repeats several times a minute. The sudden rush of air into the lungs causes the epiglottis to close, creating the "hic" listen (help路info) noise. A bout of hiccups generally resolves itself without intervention, although many home remedies are in circulation that claim to shorten the duration, and medication is occasionally necessary. By extension, the term "hiccup" is also used to describe a small and unrepeated aberration in an otherwise consistent pattern. The medical term is singultus.

While many cases develop spontaneously, hiccups are known to develop often in specific situations, such as eating too quickly, taking a cold drink while eating a hot meal, eating very hot or spicy food, laughing vigorously or coughing, drinking an alcoholic beverage to excess, crying out loud (sobbing causes air to enter the stomach), some smoking situations where abnormal inhalation can occur (in tobacco or other smoke like cannabis, perhaps triggered by precursors to coughing, or in the case of cannabis, by precursors to laughter), or electrolyte imbalance. Hiccups may be caused by pressure to the phrenic nerve by other anatomical structures, or rarely by tumors and certain kidney disease. It is reported that 30% of chemotherapy patients suffer singultus as a side effect of treatment. (American Cancer Society)


Purpose
One possible beneficial effect of hiccups is to dislodge foreign pieces of food, which have become stuck in the oesophagus, or which are traveling too slowly. When a piece of food is swallowed that is too large for the natural peristalsis of the esophagus to move the food quickly into the stomach, it applies pressure on the phrenic nerve, invoking the hiccup reflex. This causes the diaphragm to contract, creating a vacuum in the thoracic cavity, which creates a region of low pressure on the side of the lump of food nearest the stomach, and a region of high pressure on the side of the lump of food nearest the mouth. This lungs differential across the food creates a force, which assists peristalsis. In humans, gravity partially assists peristalsis, but in quadrupeds and many marine vertebrates, their oesophagi run roughly perpendicular to the force of gravity, so that gravity provides little assistance. The hiccup mechanism likely evolved as an aid to peristalsis in our ancestors. It only now appears to offer little benefit, as humans are upright and gravity assists peristalsis, making it very unlikely for food to become lodged in the oesophagus.

Ultrasound scans have also shown that fetuses experience hiccups. Some hypotheses suggest that hiccups are a muscle exercise for the respiratory system prior to birth, or that they prevent amniotic fluid from entering the lungs[1]. More research is required to ascertain their true nature, origins, and purpose, if any.

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