• Question: why do people get hick ups? and why do people get sneases

    Asked by gs56789 to Chris, Emily, Martin, Natalie, Tamsin on 16 Mar 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Chris Cooper

      Chris Cooper answered on 16 Mar 2010:

      Hiccups occur when your diaphragm suddenly and involuntarily contracts. This causes you to breathe in air very quickly. The incoming air is stopped when your glottis (the opening between your vocal cords) closes. This produces the characteristic sound of a hiccup. Why we do this is very unclear. Drinking alcohol or eating fast seem to be the cause of short term hiccups. Persistent hiccups lasting many hours and days are very mysterious.

      A sneeze is an expulsion of air from the lungs through the nose and mouth, usually caused by foreign particles irritating the nasal mucosa. think the purpose is probably the body trying to get rid of foreign particles. Sneezing can be triggered through sudden exposure to bright light, a particularly full stomach, or viral infection (such as a cold). The last one is probably the biological reason we sneeze.

    • Photo: Natalie Stanford

      Natalie Stanford answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      Typically both Hiccups and Sneezing are caused by irritations. With Hiccups It is the diaphragm (a big dome shaped muscle just below your lungs that helps you to breathe in and out) that gets irritated. The diaphragm moves up for you breathe out and it moves down for you to breathe in. When it gets irritated it pulls down very quickly, causing you to suck a lot of air in at once and you get your hiccup. Hiccups are most often caused by eating too quickly, drinking fizzy drinks and getting excited or nervous.

      Sneezing occurs from irritation to the nose lining. When little particles such as dust enter the nose they usually get trapped in the hairs and are then cleaned away with mucus. Sometimes this doesn’t happen and they manage to reach a lining at the back of the nose called a mucous membrane. When they reach here things called histines are released as an immune response. These histines irritate the nerves and send a signal to the brain that causes you to sneeze. When you are ill it is usually a virus or bacteria that cause the irritation at the back of the nose. Sneezing is designed to remove a large amount of bacteria/virus/dust from your nose so it can’t stay there and make you ill.

    • Photo: Emily Cook

      Emily Cook answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      Hiccups are contractions of the diaphragm, which is the muscle that controls the lungs and separates the chest from the stomach. If you have eaten somethig you stomach dosen’t like, or have gas to give off (smelly) the stomach presses on the diaphragm, which makes it contract. When it contracts air get pulled towards your lungs but because of the muscle spasm it can’t get in and you make a noise.

      what I don’t know is why a shock cures you…..

    • Photo: Martin Coath

      Martin Coath answered on 17 Mar 2010:

      Hiccups are strange and nobody is completely sure what causes them. Normal hiccups last up to half an hour or so – but they can be symptoms of nerve damage if they last for weeks.

      Sneezing is a reflex action to clear the nose of obstructions. Remember to catch those sneezes guys, they spread flu!

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