Why do jalepenos give me the hiccups?

The other day, I had a salad with a couple of jalapeno slices in it. Seconds after consuming the first pepper, I felt a weird tightness in my chest, and started hiccuping. Just a couple times; then it went away.

The same thing happened tonight (only it was pizza this time, instead of salad).

I don’t recall this happening before, but it’s been a while since I had jalapeno peppers. Why would that happen? Some bizarre physiological response to spiciness?

It’s not all that bizarre. In my experience and yours, apparently, the nice thing about spicy-induced hiccups is that they are very, very short lived…unlike the beer-induced ones.