Short bouts of hiccups are normal and harmless. Prolonged hiccups (not disappearing for more than forty-eight hours) - a rare phenomenon, requiring medical attention: in such cases, hiccups can be caused by any hidden disease.

What are hiccups

Hiccups are caused by the sharp contraction of the diaphragm - the muscle beneath the lungs and helps to breathe. Glottis (the tube located between the vocal cords and into the trachea passing) is closed immediately after the contraction of the diaphragm, resulting in a sharp contraction of the diaphragm and causes the characteristic "hiccuping" sound. By itself, the hiccups - is a reflex, an unconscious reaction of the body that the person is not able to control. However, unlike other reflexes - e.g., cough or sneeze - hiccup serves no useful function.

Hiccups - a very common phenomenon that does not depend neither on gender nor the age or state of health. Interestingly, the appearance of hiccups can note some laws - for example, hiccups often appears in the evening, is most common in women before the onset of the menstrual period and during pregnancy is very rare.

Short bouts of hiccups

With short bouts of hiccups is familiar to most people. In most cases, hiccups begin without some reason, lasts for a short period of time, and then just as suddenly stops. Hiccups can be caused by:

• A sudden emotional shock
• Temporary abdominal distention caused by eating too much or too fast ingestion of food, drinking carbonated beverages, swallowing air
• Sudden changes in temperature (cold showers, very hot or very cold food or drink)
• Alcohol
• Excessive smoking

How to get rid of hiccups

Of course, short bouts of hiccups require no specific treatment - however, as a hiccup can cause discomfort, invented many ways to quickly suppress hiccups own. Among them:

• Plugged nostrils and inserting his fingers in his ears (so you can prevent air from entering the respiratory tract), otpeyte little water. It is best to drink water How to drink water to lose weight   ice - a sharp temperature drop will help to quickly deal with hiccups
• Hold your breath and try to breathe very quickly
• Drink a little apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
• Squeeze your knees to your chest and / or lean forward, achieving compression of the diaphragm
• Take a deep breath, and then hold the air inside, contracting muscles as if trying to push the air out.

Prolonged bouts of hiccups

Prolonged bouts of hiccups - a very rare phenomenon.

• In some cases, long-lasting (for more than forty-eight hours) hiccups caused by any disease - more than a hundred different diseases can cause, including, and hiccups. Some of them are quite common - for example, acid reflux - some - very rare. Of course, in addition to hiccups, the development of such diseases and other distinct observed symptoms.
• In some cases, hiccups can be sustained without a specific reason.

May cause long-term hiccups:

• Certain drugs - for example, steroids, analgesics, which is composed of opiates (e.g., morphine), tranquilizers.
• Changes in the blood - for example, a high level of alcohol in blood sugar Blood sugar - a very important indicator , Very low levels of calcium or potassium.
• The problems of the alimentary canal - acid reflux, bloating, infection of the gall bladder.
• General anesthesia
• Disorders, diseases or surgery on organs of the chest, abdomen, neck - e.g., infection such as pneumonia or angina Angina - is it worth it to carry "on their feet"? Tumors, cysts.
• Some disorders of the cardiovascular system - for example, inflammatory diseases of the heart or heart attack
• Violations of the brain - a stroke Stroke - a serious brain injury , Head injury, brain infection
• Hiccups are sometimes observed in the final stages of a terminal illness - for example, at a late stage progressive cancer.

If you get rid of a long bout of hiccups do not help people's money, you can try to suppress hiccups with medication. To suppress the hiccups in adults (children take the medication without first consulting with your doctor parents not recommended) can be used the following drugs:

• Chlorpromazine or haloperidol - drugs that, in addition to other effects, have a muscle or nerve endings of the diaphragm relaxing effect and can help suppress continuous hiccups.
• If prolonged hiccups caused digestive disorders (e.g., acid reflux), can be recommended to reduce the acidity of drugs (such as omeprazole or ranitidine) or agents that accelerate gastric emptying (metoclopramide).
• Baclofen - a drug that relaxes muscles
• Ketamine (an intravenous anesthetic)

The consequences of stroke - acute circulatory disorders, in which blood flow to the brain stops, causing the death of brain cells - can be temporary or permanent. In some cases, the body's functions are completely restored after a stroke, but in most situations stroke entails quite serious consequences, up to the paralysis of half the body.

The most common effects of stroke include:

• Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body or limbs only
• Pain, weakness, "stiffness" of muscle
• Incoordination
• Speech disorders (aphasia, dysarthria)
• Peripheral neuropathy (damage to the nerve endings, causing the loss of the ability to feel pain, temperature, and so on)
• Problems with memory, perception of information, attention

The severity of the consequences of stroke, and the chances of recovery depend on the extent of damage to parts of the brain caused by poor circulation, and the area of ​​brain damage.

Paralysis and dysmotility

Paralysis - one of the most common effects of a stroke. As a rule, there is paralysis after a stroke the side of the body, which is the opposite hemisphere of the brain damaged if the poor circulation resulting in damage to the right hemisphere of the brain, then there is paralysis of the left side of the body. May suffer from paralysis of the facial muscles, limbs. Paralysis of the muscles of one side of the body caused by a stroke hemiplegia call, and a condition in which there is a stroke weakness of muscles of one side of the body - hemiparesis.

Peripheral neuropathy: the loss of the ability to feel

Another consequence of stroke observed often enough - peripheral neuropathy Peripheral neuropathy - when the brain loses its connection with the body The injury of peripheral nerves. Depending on the type of damaged nerves effects of stroke vary, but most often it is the loss of ability to feel pain, to recognize the heat and cold, and so on. Quite often after a stroke, there is such a thing as paresthesia - spontaneously occurring unpleasant sensation of numbness, tingling, burning sensation in the limbs.

Violations urodynamics

Violations urodynamics - often manifested urinary incontinence - are often observed immediately after the stroke. This kind of disorders may be characterized by the inability to control the bladder muscle Urinary bladder - structure and function Inability to recognize the need to urinate, enuresis Enuresis or urinary incontinence - how not to run a disease? . These effects of stroke are usually temporary in nature and are associated with damage to the autonomic nervous system - that is, the nerves that regulate the function of internal organs.

Aphasia

According to statistics, such violations are observed in twenty-five percent of people who survived a stroke. Caused by stroke damage to any of the speech centers of the brain can significantly impair the ability to communicate.

The main speech centers in the left hemisphere of the brain in right-handers and left-handers many. Damage to the speech centers in the dominant hemisphere of the brain - the so-called Broca field - almost inevitably leads to expressive aphasia. Man partially or completely loses the ability to pronounce the word aloud, to make of them grammatically correct, meaningful sentences.

In the opposite case, when the damage is the speech center, located in the posterior part of the temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere of the brain - the so-called Wernicke's area, there is a sensory aphasia. This type of aphasia is an inability to perceive the other's speech, people with sensory aphasia Aphasia: types and treatment of the disease   often talk long, grammatically correct but meaningless sentences. Finally, there is the worst form of aphasia - a global, or total aphasia, caused extensive damage to several areas of the brain and leads to complete loss of speech function: a person can not speak or understand another's speech.