Most hiccups are caused by eating too much food, eating too quickly, swallowing air while eating, drinking carbonated or alcoholic beverages, an upset stomach, or feeling nervous or excited. Usually, hiccups are completely harmless and disappear within minutes, but rarely hiccups can be painful and relentless, indicating a more serious condition. If hiccups persist more than several days, medical attention is advisable. Just like the purpose of hiccups, their cure is also unknown. Old wives tales are just as accepted and tried as doctor s recommendations.
Prescriptions also exist to quell hiccups.
A scientist studied 23 languages and discovered that in most of them, including English, the word for hiccup was onomat- opoetic, that is, the word sounded like the action. One of the advantages of college is the high speed Internet connections, which students can access through dorms or public computer labs. When I first came here, I found this a welcome improvement over the sluggish modem dial-up connection at my own house. But this convenience turned to a hindrance as I found that my work and friends began to take second place to the allure of cyberspace. This may have been the beginning of what University of Pittsburgh professor Kimberly Young has referred to as Internet Addiction.