Your diaphragm

Every time you breathe, your lungs take in air. To do this, you ribs and diaphragm work together to make sure there is enough room for your lungs to expand and contract. Your diaphragm is a very strong muscle that lies just below your lungs. When you inhale (breathe in), your diaphragm contracts (squeezes tight) and goes from a dome shape to a flat shape. As it moves down, it has to push some of your intestines out of the way, but you don’t feel that! At the same time, your rib cage moves outward, making the space for your lungs to expand as large as possible. The air you breathe moves through your lungs (learn about all the different part of your lungs below) and fills up your alveoli, your air sacs. Oxygen moves from your alveoli to your red blood cells through the walls of the capillaries that cover the alveoli. At the same time carbon dioxide is removed and you just breathe it out. Your red blood cells then carry oxygen to every cell in your body!

When you exhale (breathe out), you get rid of the carbon dioxide waste that your red blood cells have taken from all the cells in your body. Your diaphragm relaxes and returns to its dome shape making the space for your lungs smaller. At the same time, the muscles between your ribs (your intercostal muscles) relax and air is pushed out of your lungs. To feel this happen, put your hand on your chest and take a deep breath. Can you feel your chest get much bigger as you inhale and smaller as you exhale?

The most common problem people have with their diaphragm is that they get hiccups! Everybody gets hiccups at some stage! They can be quite funny, but if they go on for a long time, they can make you feel pretty tired and might even be a little embarrassing! But what are hiccups and how can you stop them?

When you breathe normally, you don’t really notice and you do it without even thinking – it is an involuntary action. Your brain constantly sends messages to your respiratory system so that your diaphragm (the big muscle at the end of your torso) contracts and your lungs fill with air. Sometimes, this message gets a little confused and your diaphragm contracts too rapidly and you get the hiccups!

People can get hiccups if they eat or drink too quickly because a lot of air gets in with the food or liquid. Other people get hiccups if they eat too much or if they eat too much spicy food! Most of the time though, people get hiccups when they are doing nothing at all – it isn’t really understood! There are, however, lots of things that people try to get rid of hiccups! Not very many of these work and there is no medical evidence that anything does but you could try these if you get the hiccups. Try holding your breath and counting slowly to 10. Remember - you cannot breathe in any air so it may be easier to hold your nose when you do this! Some people try to drink water very slowly from the wrong side of the glass (this can be very messy!). Other people may think they are helping you if they jump out and give you a fright. I’m sure you have heard of lots of other ways to stop hiccups! Sometimes these ‘therapies’ work, sometimes they don’t. The best thing is to try not to get hiccups in the first place!