Can anyone shed any light on a longstanding problem?
I've been a smoker for most of my life and I'm happy to continue.
I am respectful of others feelings and never smoke where it's not welcomed or allowed.
The problem is every now and then I'll go through a period of sometimes a whole day were every cigarette I light gives me hiccups!
Drives me bleedin barmy!
Any ideas on why this should happen?
This has intrigued me for a long time and I thought the collective minds herein could enlighten me?

I smoke weed.

For some reasons when I smoke ciggarettes or black & milds, I get this weird sensation like my mind is full and I feel like throwing up. I heard blacks can make you want to shit, havent heard hiccups before.

When I used to smoke my middle finger would start twitching. For some reason it felt really good. But, it would stop when I was done smoking. So, when your done smoking, eat a spoon full of mustard! Mmmmm... mustard....

Oscar:
When I used to smoke my middle finger would start twitching. For some reason it felt really good. But, it would stop when I was done smoking. So, when your done smoking, eat a spoon full of mustard! Mmmmm... mustard...
Its the ritual cues tied in to the behavior of smoking.

For example, most people find it impossible to quit smoking with either the Nicotrol patch or the gum but not with the inhalers- because the inhaler provides the behaviourisms of smoking.
Which may be why the tic stopped when not smoking.

bbcboy:
The problem is every now and then I'll go through a period of sometimes a whole day were every cigarette I light gives me hiccups!

Your case would be an irritated diaphragm.

Let's hope its cancer.

"Your case would be an irritated diaphragm.

Let's hope its cancer. "

Why is that so damned funny? :D That made me laugh for like a minute and a half.

i smoke from last 10 yrs now , i am still alive !!! big deal !!

Hiccups are spasms created by the phrenic nerve, which controls the muscles that operate the diaphragm. This is the same nerve responsible for the life-saving reflex of involuntary coughing, as well as the considerably less beloved reflex of sneezing.

If smoking is affecting synapses in your brain that are linked to the phrenic nerve, it's possible that the hiccuping spells may some day become longer. I can't tell you the probability of that, but it's a sobering thought. If they become so long that they don't stop, the only medical option is to remove the phrenic nerve. This happens to some people who don't smoke; actually I've never heard of it being linked to smoking. But then again I've never heard of hiccups being linked to smoking at all. You're a medical curiosity.

If they remove your phrenic nerve, you stand a pretty good chance of some day dying because you get something caught in your throat and your body doesn't automatically cough. It waits for you to make a conscious decision to cough and by then the obstruction has fallen too far down and you can't get it out.

This is admittedly a scenario upon which it's difficult to perform risk analysis. How much pleasure do you get from smoking versus what is the actual probability of dying because smoking may cause you to have your phrenic nerve removed. I'd guess that you're still more likely to die from one of the more common smoking-related illnesses such as cancer or heart disease.

People often begin smoking because nicotine is a drug that provides a certain level of pleasure. They're at a point in their lives where that particular pleasure makes a big difference in their life so it's a rational tradeoff to take the risk in order to get the pleasure. Then they get addicted so the pleasure is still there but the absence of the drug creates severe displeasure. So they keep smoking, not having any idea whether if the displeasure of withdrawal were removed, they would still find the pleasure conveyed by nicotine to be as important as it once was. They may have love, family, job satisfaction, any number of things that provide far more pleasure than nicotine, they just have no way of finding out because nicotine withdrawal is by all accounts one of the worst feelings humans can have, arguably worse than heroin withdrawal.

It's always a good idea to grit your teeth about once every five years and stop smoking. You can make it through more easily if you promise yourself that if you can't stand life without tobacco, you'll just start smoking again. Then once you get over the withdrawal symptoms, figure out how much pleasure you're getting from other things in life. If the pleasure of nicotine still seems great enough to make a big difference in your overall happiness. then start smoking again. If not, they you'll find it's not that difficult to continue not smoking, and eventually even the last vestiges of the withdrawal symptoms will go away.

My wife stopped smoking several times in her life but always came back to it. She tried it again right around the time we got married. That time she found it easy to stay off. I guess being married added so much happiness to her life that the pleasure of nicotine just wasn't even comparable.

Bet she didn't miss the sucking? :)

It's always a good idea to grit your teeth about once every five years and stop smoking. You can make it through more easily if you promise yourself that if you can't stand life without tobacco, you'll just start smoking again. Then once you get over the withdrawal symptoms, figure out how much pleasure you're getting from other things in life. If the pleasure of nicotine still seems great enough to make a big difference in your overall happiness. then start smoking again. If not, they you'll find it's not that difficult to continue not smoking, and eventually even the last vestiges of the withdrawal symptoms will go away.

Its been three weeks since I quit. Passed another big test yesterday... First time I've been to the beach since I quit. The after-swim cigarette was always one of my favourites so I was a bit worried... I needn't have been, 2 metre swell, cracker day and about 3 hours worth of bodyboarding. I didn't think of cigarettes once!

So you're absolutely correct Fraggle. I proved to myself, that surprise surprise, I can still breathe without cigarettes. Now I seek more pleasure from other things in life to compensate for that hit, which isn't such a bad thing at all. Food tastes better, I've got more energy and I'm saving money. Yay for me. :)

The first time I smoked a cigarette, I swallowed the smoke and ended up with the hiccups. Thought I might share that...
I started smoking about six months ago, and I had this dream that made me quit.
In the dream, I recieved a box of flavored cigars(chocolate, hazelnut and irish cream, if you wanted to know). I actually smoked the whole box except for the irish creams. They were tasty, felt incredible going down. I woke up from the dream, and had a morning cigarette. It was horrible, I couldn't finish it. Maybe it was the taste or smell, but it was nothing as wonderful as those cigars in my dream. Although I have never smoked a cigar before in my life, I wanted to buy them. It's strange. I haven't smoked since.

Oscar:

Its the ritual cues tied in to the behavior of smoking.



Reminds me of smokers, like me, who crave a smoke in the morning, after a meal, when bored, when drinking, when driving or before bed time...

Is it a mind thing, is it a pysical craving.... or both?

When you make a habit of the habit of smoking.... can you be saved?