# AArrgh! Ouch! I went out drinking tonight **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 27, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814 "2008-12-27T04:50:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/21 "2008-12-27T18:10:35Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Yeesh, I’d rather have the hiccups. It’s not bad, actually. The lime makes it palatable. I’m not even sure what drinks use bitters in the recipe, but my parents had a bottle of them in the cabinet forevah. I don’t recall it being used except for my hiccups (which can be pretty damn annoying when I get them). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/22 "2008-12-27T18:26:12Z")
> [@Biggirl](#): > > Drinking out of the wrong side of the cup. I dunno why, but this works for me. OK, you got me on that one. What is the “wrong side” of a cup? ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/23 "2008-12-27T18:32:12Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > I stroke my neck downward, as I read once somewhere slightly repuatalbe (Discover magazine?). Since hiccups are reversed peristalsis, the stroking attempts to signal the brain as to the “right” way it should go. Wait, what? Reverse peristalsis is vomiting. Hiccups are a spasm of the diaphragm. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/24 "2008-12-27T19:29:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > OK, you got me on that one. What is the “wrong side” of a cup? The side opposite the one nearest your mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/25 "2008-12-27T19:32:07Z")
If it happens again, try this:BOO! ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/26 "2008-12-27T19:33:27Z")
Heh! _tips hat to **Bryan Ekers** _ ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/27 "2008-12-27T20:06:10Z")
See now, this is odd–that article I linked to earlier points out that there are different components to the hiccup beyond the diaphragm spasm, apparently it’s a pretty complicated pattern: > [@](#): > > In regards to the physiological process behind hiccuping, some information and speculations exist, but a complete answer has not yet been determined. A hiccup is not simply a twitch of the diaphragm but a complex motor act. During one, the diaphragm and the complete set of inspiratory muscles (intercostal muscles, neck muscles and others) make a sudden, very strong, contraction. The expiratory muscles are also strongly inhibited. Just after the contraction begins, the glottis (commonly called the vocal cords) clamp shut, making the “hic” sound. Before the diaphragm contracts, the roof of the mouth moves up, as does the back of the tongue, and there is often an associated burp. The heart slows a bit as well. In addition, hiccups are seldom isolated events but tend to recur every few seconds, sometimes for hours. > > Together these observations imply that somewhere in the brain we have a “central pattern generator,” or CPG, for hiccups. In other words, there is a neuronal circuit designed for generating hiccups similar to the ones we have for actions such as breathing, coughing and walking. And like most of those CPGs, it is an oscillator: it sends out a recurring, periodic signal to set off a hiccup. We don’t have hiccups all the time, however, so the oscillator must be a “conditional oscillator” that fires only under certain conditions. So far all of the recommended hiccup cures (aside from the bitters and lime one–by the way, EWWW! 😛 ) have a strong component of distraction and breaking of concentration. It requires a fair amount of thought and coordination to drink from a glass on the side opposite your mouth, even to sit quietly and not work your mouth to process sugar requires quite a bit of suppression of natural inclination. I wonder if getting rid of hiccups has a mental component as well as the purely physical–kind of an autosuggestion thing? I’d also be really curious to know what the heck are hiccups FOR? What purpose does that serve? It’s just weird… ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/28 "2008-12-27T20:37:00Z")
It’s sort of like when you have to pee real bad, but you’re not able to relieve yourself? I find that if I distract myself from the urge, it tends to go away; for a short period of time, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/29 "2008-12-27T20:49:58Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > See now, this is odd–that article I linked to earlier points out that there are So far all of the recommended hiccup cures (aside from the bitters and lime one–by the way, EWWW! 😛 ) Just so’s you don’t think I’m crazy…[Angostura bitters - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angostura_bitters) (seriously…it works and it doesn’t suck all that bad) ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2008, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/30 "2008-12-27T22:14:00Z")
I use the drink from the other side of the cup trick. Works every time. Another thing that works really well is having your manager hide outside the bathroom door and leap out at you screeching and waving her arms as you exit, but I realize that’s impractical under ordinary circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/31 "2008-12-28T13:43:32Z")
As a bartender (who is supposed to have an answer for everything) and as others have posted… A lime with a few dashes of Angostura Bitters on it is supposedly a cure. I’ve handed out lots of those. Another cure is drinking from the other side of the glass. Only I was always told that people should try it upside down…i.e., while they are bent over, so that they have to attempt to drink from the far side of the glass while also drinking with their head towards the floor. The latter trick works more often than the former, IME, but the real trick is getting people to actually try it. If you try and don’t succeed you end up wearing half that glass of water. I don’t get hiccups very often and when I do, I just hold my breath for 60 seconds and that almost always works… But that’s just me. I read a bio of Margaret Mitchell–author of _Gone with the Wind_ and I vaguely recall that her husband had so many years of hiccups that he was hospitalized. Can you imagine? ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/32 "2008-12-28T15:38:53Z")
> [@Audrey\_Levins](#): > > Can you imagine? Unfortunately, I **can** imagine, and the very thought gives me the willies! I thoroughly detest getting hiccups and I think I’d be onboard with suicide pretty quickly if I got a case that lasted more than a day! ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814/33 "2008-12-29T01:32:42Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > OK, you got me on that one. What is the “wrong side” of a cup? From the bottom. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aarrgh-ouch-i-went-out-drinking-tonight/478814.md?page=1)