Sore Spot on Back Causes Hiccups - Why?

Comment by Chad J. Dupuis, L.Ac.

People can have all types of stress responses to anything, pain being a common one to illicit stress in the body. The stress response then can be just about anything, but one common one is either mildly hyperventilating through holdings ones breath, or what is known as aerophagia or “swallowing your breath repeatedly” (when you notice pain for example). This may be obvious or so subtle they are hard to pick up on, but this will lead to belching. Other possibilities are disruptions to the vagus nerve (which controls much of the abdominal functions) and/or esophageal spasms - again usually from changes in breathing patterns.

Commonly with self massage as people struggle to apply pressure to themselves they will hold their breath.

There are hundreds of other possibilities, but as this shows up in a good number of psychological conditions (anxiety, panic disorder, depression) once we get the underlying issues under control and in the case of anxiety disorders retrain their breathing to abdominal breathing patterns, the belching is eliminated.

Comment by Archived User

The brain is an immensely complicated switchboard of sorts. Given the incredible complexity of the brain with the uniqueness of each individual the possibility for a near infinite number of odd occurrences or seemingly strange behaviors, experiences, emotions, etc can manifest. So for you it is possible that your brain has created a functional relationship with your sensation of pain and your normally autonomically controlled function of burping. In effect, what is normally separate -pain and belching, has become linked.

Acupuncture should be able to help with that. As I’ve written here recent research has shown acupuncture can affect the way different brain areas communicate, which is effectively exactly what would be needed in order to correct your pain-belching connection.