# Why do jalepenos give me the hiccups?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jalepenos-give-me-the-hiccups/389664>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 27, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jalepenos-give-me-the-hiccups/389664 "2007-01-27T01:30:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2007, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jalepenos-give-me-the-hiccups/389664/1 "2007-01-27T01:30:57Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\
**Post date:** [January 27, 2007, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-jalepenos-give-me-the-hiccups/389664/2 "2007-01-27T01:50:53Z")

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It’s not all that [bizarre](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiccup). 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.