Hiccups for two years and may be till death do part!

Hiccup is an annoying experience that may last for a short while and then disappear. There are all sort of weird concoctions and remedies to stop this nasty ailment but for Daniel Clavin of Roscommon county, Ireland no such cures has helped him stop his hiccups.

Unfortunately he has had to undergo this unending suffering for the past two years and now is in a devastated state of mind as there is probably no cure and he’ll have them for the rest of his life. Daniel Clavin even has to sleep in a separate room to his wife and is also embarrassed about going anywhere in public.

Desperate Clavin, 38, began suffering constant hiccups after a boozy night out in July, 2011 and the problem is now ruining his life.

Dad-of-two Clavin was recently diagnosed with multiple sclerosis [MS] and believes the hiccups could be a symptom of the disease.

But with no foreseeable cure for MS, he fears he will have hiccups for the rest of his life.

Clavin said: “They’ve taken over my life and I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of them. Now I’ve been diagnosed with MS I think that’s the reason for them.

“The MS Society says they’ve never heard of that happening before, but MS can affect your brain in lots of different ways.

“I’m told I’ve got a high burden of the disease and this is the only symptom so far, so I can’t complain. “But MS is a progressive disease so I don’t know if I’ll ever be cured of them.”

“I’ve tried just about everything - all the old wives’ cures - but I can’t stop.

“Some days are bad and I’ll have difficulty eating and keeping my food down.

“Other times they lock up my diaphragm and I won’t be able to breathe for 30 seconds.

“I spend most nights in a different room from Susan so she is not disturbed but that’s not ideal and it puts a strain on things. “I can be lying there for hours, hiccuping every three seconds.”

Daniel is currently seeing a neurologist who has prescribed chlorpromazine, a drug normally used to treat schizophrenics.

That has failed to stop the hiccups - but appears to have reduced them to a regular on-off pattern. He said: “I’ll have them for seven or eight days and then they’ll suddenly stop and I’ll be without them for five or six days and I’ll be perfectly fine. “I’ve got another appointment with the neurologist in a couple of weeks when he says he’s going to put me on an anti-epilepsy drug to see how I react to that.

“There’s also the possibility of having a pacemaker fitted in my diaphragm which would interrupt the signal from my brain and hopefully stop them.”

Despite his problem, Daniel says he has been able to keep his job as a software worker with BT. He said: “My work colleagues are very good and very tolerant and I do everything I can to keep the hiccups quiet.”

Wife Susan, 39, said: “It’s a big struggle. I try to block it out but I can’t sleep with it - the sound and the constant twitching of the bed.

Village of dwarfs - a baffling phenomenon

A village of dwarfs? Can you believe a remote village in China’s Sichuan province which has a population of 80, has over 36 human beings who are dwarfs?

This strange phenomenon has been baffling scientists for decades and hence Yangsi is known as the “village of dwarfs”.

In Yangsi, the village concerned has around 40 percent of its inhabitants several heads shorter than the average human being - the tallest one being about 3 ft. 10 inches tall and the shortest, 2 ft. 1 inch.

That’s too large a percentage to be categorised as random occurrence, but so far no one has been able to provide a better explanation.

According to village elders, their peaceful, happy life was ruined on a summer night many years ago, when a vile disease struck the region. Several locals suffered from a mysterious condition that mainly affected young children between the ages of 5 and 7. These children just stopped growing, remaining at the same height for the rest of their lives. Apart from their inability to grow taller, some of the victims also suffered from various disabilities.

Scientists and experts visited Yangsi, to study the water, soil, and grain in the region. They also examined the affected individuals in the hopes of gathering a few clues. However, they were unable to determine the cause behind the condition. It remains as mysterious today, as it was some 60-odd years ago.

According to the writings of the District officials, the strange disease was discovered in 1951. The victims back then were described as having short limbs.

A census was conducted in 1985, discovering about 119 such cases in the village. Apparently, the disease did not stop with the original victims; it was passed on to the next generation as well.

Although the condition was officially recorded in 1951, reports of dwarf sightings date as far back as 1911.

In 1947, English scientist Dr. Karyl Robin Evans claimed to have seen a few hundred dwarfs living in a remote valley, in the area where Yangsi is located.

While the dwarfs themselves might not be unusual, it’s the sheer number of them that’s perplexing. At one point, as many as 120 of them were spotted, which just could not be a matter of chance.

Naturally, the villagers began to believe that evil forces were at work. Some blamed the bad feng shui of the area, while others thought it was because their ancestors were not given a better burial.

But the most bizarre explanation so far states that a long time ago, a man named Wang spotted a black turtle with strange feet. Some of the villagers wanted to let it go, but they ended up roasting and eating it. When the disease struck, they started to believe that they might have been better off releasing the turtle.

Throughout the years, several residents have left the region in fear of being affected by the strange condition, but things seem to be improving. While many of the older locals are up to 80 centimetres in height, the new generation seems to be unaffected by the weird dwarfism phenomenon.