severe hiccups while eating

Many people will have suffered severe hiccups while eating at some time or other. "Hic!"; you've just hiccupped for what seems like the tenth time since you finished your big meal and you only seem to get these severe hiccups while eating; where are these uncontrollable and sometimes embarrassingly strange noises coming from?

Severe hiccups while eating generate from the diaphragm. This is a dome-shaped muscle at the bottom of your chest, and all hiccups start here. The diaphragm usually works perfectly ok. It pulls down when you inhale to help pull air into the lungs, and it pushes up when you exhale to help push air out of the lungs. However, sometimes the diaphragm becomes irritated, leading to severe hiccups while eating too quickly or too much. When this happens, the diaphragm pushes up in a jerky way that makes your breath come out differently from how it normally does. When this irregular breath hits your voice box, you're left with a big hiccup.