Every time I drank a soda it triggered the red flag symptom of cancer that’s surging in young people. It seems so innocuous… I wish I’d known

It was a seemingly innocuous symptom that just about everyone suffers from time to time.

But for John Beck, hiccups became a relentless, almost life-ruining two-year affliction.

At points, the California native suffered so badly – and so constantly – from the spasms, he was unable to eat and felt his mental health was crumbling.

But worst of all, after being dismissed by multiple doctors when he attempted to seek help, Beck finally learned the cause: a deadly form of cancer that’s on the rise in young people.

At first, the hiccups came on after he drank a soda or anything carbonated.

Then, eating would trigger the fits. ‘They progressively got more aggressive,’ he said. ‘Eventually, I would just sit there for an hour and hiccup and hiccup and hiccup.

‘It gets to the point where you’re frustrated and you just decide, I’m not going to eat anything.’

It also made sleep nearly impossible. Beck would lie next to his partner hiccuping – neither of them able to sleep due to the noise and the movement from the entire bed shaking with each spasm.

When it came to hiccup remedies, Beck said, ‘I tried them all.’

For the roughly two years he suffered the bizarre attacks, Beck tried drinking water upside down or bent over, holding his breath and holding ice in his mouth.

There was the breathing into a paper bag method, the tablespoon of sugar on the tongue, biting a lemon, rubbing his throat from both sides and placing pressure behind his ears.

‘I’m not sure if any of them really helped, though,’ he said.

The only relief came at night from 10mg THC-CBD edibles, which relaxed his muscles enough to drift off.

By late 2020, Beck had had enough.

When he finally worked up the courage to make a doctor’s appointment for his hiccups, he could sense the receptionist’s disbelief on the other end of the line.

‘Trying to make an appointment for hiccups was pretty embarrassing – it felt like I was getting giggled at,’ he said.

His first doctor did not see his hiccups as a symptom of anything concerning, explaining it was most likely an issue with the upper part of the digestive system.

No testing was recommended, he said – instead, ‘The doctor just suggested I try antacids.’

Beck admitted that it didn’t feel like a bad suggestion.

Hiccups are involuntary contractions of the diaphragm, the sheet of muscle that sits beneath the lungs and heart, and above the stomach, liver and other digestive organs.

The main role of the diaphragm is to regulate breathing. It contracts and moves downward when we breathe in, creating a vacuum in the chest cavity, forcing the lungs to expand and inhale air.

During exhalation, or breathing out, the diaphragm relaxes and moves upward, squeezing the chest cavity and forcing air out of the lungs.

When the diaphragm spasms during a hiccup, air is suddenly sucked in. In response, the opening between the vocal cords known as the glottis snaps shut.

This rapid closure blocks the intake of air, producing the ‘hic’ sound.

Common triggers include eating to fast, carbonated beverages and spicy foods, all of which cause the stomach to expand rapidly, irritating the diaphragm sitting above.

Likewise, long-term acid reflux can lead to inflammation around the upper opening of the stomach, irritating the diaphragm and causing hiccups.

Still, Beck found the antacids didn’t help.

And, by the time he saw a second doctor later that year, the hiccups had become more disruptive, rendering swallowing uncomfortable and making eating even more of a challenge.

Again, the doctor believed a gastrointestinal issue to be the cause.

Finally, after two years of progressively worsening symptoms, Beck found a doctor who took his hiccups seriously.

Physical exams led to tests and scans, and he received a shattering diagnosis: stage 3 thyroid cancer. It had already begun to spread.

The news sent him reeling, as he was forced to face his own mortality at the age of 28.

‘It felt like a long, dark tunnel was opening up in front of me,’ Beck said. ‘I just felt this huge anxiety – that I could die, not when I was older, but now.’

The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland located in the neck, wrapped around the front and sides of the trachea, just beneath the larynx.

It is responsible for creating hormones that regulate energy levels and metabolism, and normally, it cannot be felt.

Around 45,000 Americans are diagnosed with thyroid cancer each year, and rates are rising. Thyroid cancer is three times more common in women than in men, and the age of affected patients is dropping. 

Although the average age for diagnosis is 51, and the disease is most common in older adults, researchers have seen an uptick in cases in younger patients. Former White House adviser Jared Kushner (now 45) was diagnosed at 38 years old, and actress Sofia Vergara (now 53) received her diagnosis at just 28.

Most of the increase comes from more scans being offered to younger people, finding tiny cancers that would not have caused harm. But experts say this does not entirely explain the trend.

Factors such as pollution, radiation, chemical exposure, obesity and lifestyle habits are thought to play a role.

The connection between the thyroid and hiccups comes down to location.

The thyroid sits close to the phrenic and vagus nerves in the neck, two major pathways that control the diaphragm.

When a thyroid tumor grows large enough, it can press directly on these nerves or irritate the surrounding tissues.

That constant irritation can send misfired signals to the diaphragm, triggering hiccups.

However, in hindsight, these were not the only symptoms that affected Beck.

In 2019, when he was traveling in Spain, he suffered fatigue, brain fog and throat discomfort but dismissed them as travel-related exhaustion.

Over the next two years, his weight began to fluctuate wildly – which, although he didn’t know it at the time, is another sign of thyroid problems.

He found he had dropped several clothing sizes over a few months, then piled on pounds over the next few months, becoming heavier than ever before.

Beck’s diagnosis was thanks, in part, to the doctor – who realized that persistent hiccups were a warning sign of thyroid cancer – examining his neck.

Growths in the thyroid as well as swelling of the gland can be felt, and in severe cases, seen – appearing like a lump in the front of the neck. 

Bouts of hiccups lasting for more than a month – particularly if they are disrupting eating, drinking, sleep, work or daily life – should be medically assessed.

A report on Ubie reviewed by internal medicine physician Dr Yoshinori Abe reads: ‘Persistent hiccups are uncommon, and serious causes are rare. However, because hiccups involve important nerve pathways and organs, ongoing symptoms deserve attention.

‘It’s important not to panic – but also not to ignore symptoms that last.’

After his diagnosis, Beck underwent two surgeries to remove his thyroid and check whether the cancer had spread.

Because it was still during the height of the COVID pandemic, his partner had to drop him off at the hospital alone.

‘Nobody was allowed to go in, and I remember the nurse just holding my hand before I went into surgery,’ Beck recalled.

After the procedures, he faced a round of radiation followed by final rounds of imaging to confirm the cancer had not metastasized – when tumors start to appear elsewhere in the body.

The five-year survival rate for thyroid cancer is extremely good at about 98 percent overall.

For the most common types caught early, it is over 99 percent. And even after spreading to nearby lymph nodes, it remains at 97 to 99 percent.

But if the cancer reaches distant organs like the lungs or bones, survival drops to around 70 percent for papillary and 62 percent for follicular thyroid cancer.

Today, Beck, now 33, allows himself cautious hope.

His tumor markers have remained clean, and his testing has been scaled back from every three months to once a year. Next month’s annual test will tell if the cancer is finally behind him.

But the aftermath lingers.

As his thyroid was removed, he must take daily medication that mimics the hormones it produced.

His weight still fluctuates as doctors try different doses, and he wakes with night sweats and brain fog so severe he sometimes forgets where he is.

The blood work costs him $4,000 a year. And each annual appointment brings the quiet anxiety of a possible return.

The cause of his cancer remains unclear, but Beck has his own theories. He grew up in Altura, a small, rural town in Northern California, where he said cancer seems to strike far too many young people.

A childhood friend died at 14 from a rare, aggressive form of cancer, Beck said, and he can rattle off a list of others from his hometown who have been diagnosed.

Beck suspects the area may be a cancer cluster – a community that has a statistically higher-than-average rate of the disease – potentially linked to chemical waste or agricultural run-off.

He recalled swimming as a child in spots he would never go near today.

‘There’s always kind of been rumors about it being a dumping ground for chemicals,’ he said.

Ultimately, Beck said the experience has certainly changed him – though not entirely for the worse.

‘Now that it’s been happening, I’m thankful for the perspective,’ he said. ‘I definitely see life a lot more brightly, and I don’t take things for granted like I did.’

Today, he is eating again and enjoying meals without the torment of relentless hiccups. He is working, living and urging other young people to listen to their bodies, because sometimes, the strangest symptom is the one that ends up saving your life.

‘You know your body better than anybody else,’ Beck said. ‘Don’t brush anything off.’