One Man Hiccuped for 68 Yrs; Doctors Cannot Explain Why He, or Anyone Else, Hiccups

Hiccups are a medical mystery, a clear condition with confusing causes. And nobody can definitely say why some of the suggested “cures” may or may not work.

The longest recorded case of chronic hiccups in medical history was suffered by Charles Osborne, a farmer who continuously hiccuped for 68 years at a rate of one every three seconds during waking hours, an estimated 24,000 times per day, or nearly 595.7 million times over his lifetime.

Osborne coped by sleeping standing up and even eating while standing on his head, but the only true explanation for his problem came in the late 1980s, when an Illinois specialist, Dr. Terence Anthoney, said that an accident that occurred when Osborne fell while he was butchering a 350-pound hog in Nebraska at the age of 29 “destroyed a small area in the brain stem, inhibiting the hiccup response.”

“The doctor said later that I busted a blood vessel the size of a pin in my brain,” Osborne told People magazine.

Given an experimental drug that rid him of hiccups for 36 hours, Osborne was turned off by the side effects and declined further treatment. Mysteriously, Osborne’s hiccups completely stopped in 1990—but a year later, age 97, he passed away from natural causes.

The physiology is straightforward enough. Hiccups, also known as singultus (science-speak for reflex spasms) are simply spasms of the diaphragm accompanied by a rapid closing of the vocal cords, which produces that "hic" sound.

There are four specific types of hiccups, according to the Cleveland Clinic, and for unknown reasons they are more common among men. Transient hiccups are temporary, lasting only a few seconds or minutes at most. Persistent hiccups may last from 48 hours to as long as one month.

Hiccuping that passes the one-month line are called Intractable. Recurrent hiccups and, as the name implies, may keep coming back, with each episode lasting longer than just a few minutes. The most common triggers for simple hiccups include drinking aerated carbonated beverages or alcohol, eating too much too fast, and swallowing air when chewing gum or under emotional stress. Chronic hiccups are a more complicated story.

Metabolic disorders such as diabetes or kidney disease may play a part, as may medicines such as sedatives or other drugs used for anesthesia. More serious situations may include damage or irritation of the vagus or phrenic nerves that power the diaphragm, as well as inflammation of membranes around the brain and spinal cord.

Ending chronic hiccups can be complicated, perhaps requiring surgery to remove a tumor or to sever the nerves that control the diaphragm, but this almost always results in severely impaired breathing. The common methods for ending transient hiccups are far simpler. They include a cold knife or a teaspoon of sugar on the tongue, having someone scare you, or drinking from the opposite side of the glass, each meant to tell your brain to look elsewhere.

Stanford neuroscientist Andrew Huberman suggests breathing in three times through your nose, holding your breath for half a minute and then slowly exhaling. Dr. Ali Seifi, director of the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at the University of Texas, has a tech-ier approach: the hiccup straw, a.k.a. the Forced Inspiratory Suction and Swallow Tool (FISST). When used instead of a plain paper or plastic straw, this employs swallowed air not to trigger spasms but to end them by activating the phrenic nerve plus the vagus nerve, which helps controls your lungs and other internal organs. While Seifi’s studies show success, in real life even neuroscientists admit that all transient hiccup “cures” are ultimately coincidental.

As Terence Anthoney, the doctor who treated Osborne, once put it: “Most ‘cures’ cure simply because the person’s hiccup clock is over.” Which is why the Cleveland Clinic experts pragmatically suggest avoiding the problem rather than trying to cure it. Their list of recommended stratagems? Eat and drink smaller portions slowly, limit sodas and alcohol beverages, and avoid very hot or cold dishes.