I never really thought about this before, and perhaps it's well known to everyone else here, but I've just read about it. Anyway....Hiccups serve no purpose to us, and can be quite uncomfortable, so why do we do it?
Answer: Apparently it's a hangover from our amphibian ancestry, when it was a way of quickly and efficiently expelling air through our gills, and we never kicked the habit.
It's one of those things which does my head in (in a nice way) to think about it, an echo from our distant past. Just thought I'd share.
@Indonesia-Phil
I see something similar in our pet cats, Pepper starts coughing like he is gagging or about to puke but it apparently is a response tied to hairballs they get when the lick their fur a lot. I saw it happen several times but don't see anything come up, it sounds like the poor animal is dying or suffering a stroke or something.
@sonhouse saidYeah, I've seen that in cats, and our dogs do it as well; they cough something up and then maybe re - swallow it, which at least might serve some purpose in a digestive sense? I'm not sure if it's the same thing as hiccuping, which I think starts in the lungs, or down there somewhere, something apparently left over from the time when we were crawling about on all - fours and finding our way onto the land. We never went back to the water (or did we....? ) , I've SCUBA dived quite a bit, but that requires a lot of quite cumbersome equipment, we need stuff to get us back to where we started....I should add that I'm not a scientist, this is layman's interest, but it's interesting nonetheless.
@Indonesia-Phil
I see something similar in our pet cats, Pepper starts coughing like he is gagging or about to puke but it apparently is a response tied to hairballs they get when the lick their fur a lot. I saw it happen several times but don't see anything come up, it sounds like the poor animal is dying or suffering a stroke or something.
@Indonesia-Phil saidHi Phil,
I never really thought about this before, and perhaps it's well known to everyone else here, but I've just read about it. Anyway....Hiccups serve no purpose to us, and can be quite uncomfortable, so why do we do it?
Answer: Apparently it's a hangover from our amphibian ancestry, when it was a way of quickly and efficiently expelling air through our gills, and we nev ...[text shortened]... my head in (in a nice way) to think about it, an echo from our distant past. Just thought I'd share.
do you have a source for this?
This one (in German)
https://www.msdmanuals.com/de-de/profi/gastrointestinale-erkrankungen/symptome-bei-störungen-des-gastrointestinaltrakts/schluckauf#Abklärung_v887979_de
gives various pathologocal reasons, but not the one you gave
@Indonesia-Phil saidHumans evolved from more primitive life forms; this is an interesting reminder of that. Human embryos also develop tails in the womb but lose them before birth.
I never really thought about this before, and perhaps it's well known to everyone else here, but I've just read about it. Anyway....Hiccups serve no purpose to us, and can be quite uncomfortable, so why do we do it?
Answer: Apparently it's a hangover from our amphibian ancestry, when it was a way of quickly and efficiently expelling air through our gills, and we nev ...[text shortened]... my head in (in a nice way) to think about it, an echo from our distant past. Just thought I'd share.