Question: why do you get hiccups?

Mark Fogg answered on 23 Jun 2010:

In my 2 year old daughter’s case, because she laughs too much 😉

Excellent question, and yes, that does mean I don’t have the whole answer.

Two things, 1. What the hiccup is physically and 2. Why it happens.

1. The physical manifestation of Hiccups is due to sudden involuntary contractions of the diaphragm sucking air into the lungs quickly, this causes a bit of cartilage in your throat, the epiglotis (stops food going the wrong way) to close equally quickly, that’s the hic bit. Caused, amongst other things, by eating too quickly, laughing too much and drinking fizzy drinks.
2. There’s a reference cited on, and I hesitate to say this due to notorious unreliability, Wikipedia. *shudders at the thought of citing it*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiccup#cite_note-Straus-3
Having said that, the paper cited was from a reputable peer reviewed Journal. To find out more I need to give it a good read and look up the cited papers used by the authors.
The hypothesis suggests it’s an evolutionary hangover from our amphibian past. Something akin to the air gulping of frogs and other amphibians, rather than our more ‘mechanical’ method. As to the validity of the argument and why it manifests itself under the circumstances I mentioned above, I have little idea without doing some serious reading. It looks like an area where further work is required.
Good question chelsea1. 🙂