I saw a post on hiccups and it remined me of this story. I was at the local bar and had the worse case of hiccups. The bartender gave me a mixture of some things and it immediately eliminated the hiccups. The gentlemen was killed in a car wreck a couple years ago and I never got the recipe.
What is your fool proof and favorite hiccup remedy?
My favourite remedy - drinking from the opposite side of a glass.
Dollars to donuts, he had bitters in there. People swear by the stuff.
The bottom line is: if there were a fool-proof, works for everyone, cheap (or free) method of eliminating hiccups, you’d know it by now. So would everyone else. Really.
Yes bitters was one ingredient. I think lime was another. There were more.
To be honest I am a stubborn type that does not believe in gimmicks, tricks etc… I like data and facts. I’ve had hiccups on and off through out over 40 years and have always simply let them subside. However this one night after drinking quite a few cocktails I could not stop them even after an hour. Barkeep gave me the magic potion as you say with bitters and the hiccups were gone!
There has to be something to it, because you even knew it was worth betting on it. I think there is something to bitters.
The answer would be somewhere within what physiologically takes place during a hiccup and how various changes effect it. Bitters might be one of them I don’t know.
Your reasoning is sound, yet I’m sure you know as well as anyone, that if his elixir could fix hiccups consistently with everyone, it would be a household remedy. I for one, bet that it is a shock to the system sort of thing that wears off with repeated use on the same subject.
I once had sever hiccups at a bar and the guy next to me kept challenging me to make a hiccup on the spot, a really good one at that. Eventually, they were gone, yet when I try this same trick on myself, it rarely works.
A spastic diaphragm could easily be remedied by an injection I would think. The holy grail is to be able to affect that organ via external measures. As I’ve said before, the man that patents the world’s first fool-proof, works every time on everyone hiccup stopper, will be an instant millionaire.
severe hiccups that is, the sever hiccups are usually fatal.
I stop breathing for as long as I can, and when I resume, I avoid taking a deep breath, which would be the normal reflex after stopping breathing. Works like a charm for me.
BOO!
Has that cured them?Two things I know of have a medical basis.
Sucking.
Thorazine.
I do not know why (if) the bitters works. I’m happy if it does. The reason the opposite side of the glass, or drinking from a very full glass through a piece of cloth, or sucking your thumb really convincingly, all work, is because you activate the sucking reflex from your infancy, which turns off most hiccups. It is quite embarrassing to know this, because if you are out walking the dog and you have to get rid of your hiccups, sucking THE SIDE OF your thumb as convincingly as a neonate sucks a tit makes you feel like a total dork.
But it works.
I remember telling my grandmother about the neonate-sucking-reflex-hiccup reasoning when I was newly in med school. That’s why the full glass with the handkerchief over it works. My grandmother looked foolish and terribly disappointed, and she was such a sweet lady, I hated to make her feel that way even for a second. She said, “But I was always told it had to be a gentleman’s handkerchief.”
Classic superstition. Add something else that was attached by coincidence once, and believe in it with all your heart. No, Nana darling, rest in peace, it’s just the sucking.
When the sucking reflex is not enough to turn off the hiccuping, as in several severe cases reported in the literature, intramuscular thorazine works.
Try bitters.
Sugar works too. Most of the time, hiccups are just cyclical spasms of the diaphragm anything that will break to cycle will work. what works for one person will likely work every time, but it may not work for the next guy.
There is another form of hiccups that’s, if not more dangerous, is at least more intractable. These are caused, IIRC, by a diaphragmatic infarct. Interrupting the phrenic nerve is a common treatment. Sometimes override phrenic nerve pacing works too.
Don’t laugh but these are two things that have worked for me EVERY single time I’ve had hiccups, so I can now boast I never have hiccups for more than 2 minutes a time (now I just need to work out how to stop them forever);
Drinking Fanta fruit twist (not any of the other fantas) by taking a mouthful, keeping it in my mouth for about 20 seconds then swallowing it very slowly (letting it dribble down my throat). This one I’ve never had the balls to admit to anyone else so i’ve not been able to test it on anyone else but it works EVERY time. Or if I haven’t got any fanta handy;
Hold your hand palm up and get someone else to draw circles round and round - you have to concentrate TOTALLY on watching them do that and they have to tell you when your hiccups stop. Its a question of taking your mind off everything else for a moment and that seems to stop the hiccups. That’s why scaring people sometimes works but its not totally reliable as it might not fully take their mind off but the hand thing seems to. i can promise you I’ve tried it on at least 20 people (friends, not strangers) and its worked each time.
Guaranteed you all think i’m insane now and I don’t know why the drinking one works but they both have 100% success rate with me so must be worth a try!
Many moons ago an idiotic boyfriend actually knew something worthwhile. He told me that stopping hiccups (hiccough looks wierd!) involved three breaths.
Two lung-filling breaths in succession and then one extra-deep filling breath and you hold it for as long as you can.
I don’t think that this little trick has ever not worked for me. I taught my husband and it worked for him too!
A roommate in college taught me the only hiccup remedy that has ever worked for me, and it is surprisingly simple. Just start taking long slow deep breaths in and out, focus on your breathing and keep it slow and steady, and within a couple of minutes the hiccups are gone. I assume it works (works for me, anyway!) because the slow steady breathing overrides whatever spasms are occurring in the diaphragm.
Try doing 5 cartwheels in a row. It works, and is most interesting if you’re a bit drunk.
Try a teaspoon of confectioner’s sugar.
Like clairobscur, I hold my breath. I don’t get any hiccups while my breath is held, and, if I can hold through what would have been a couple of hiccups, they are gone once I breath again. It works everytime without fail.
My daughter sucks on one of Mum’s breasts, works for her, ymmv.
Any need here for a veterinary perspective on hiccups? Puppies get hiccups very commonly. Some people will even bring their puppy in because they have witnessed hiccups (which have resolved by the time of exam). Adult dogs, to the best of my knowledge, do not hiccup.
The bar remedy that I have known for a long time is just a wedge of lime with a dash of bitters on it. I guess that also incorporates the sucking response while you eat the lime.
I had a boyfriend that would have me plug his ears for him while he drank a glass of water and that cured his hiccups. You can do that to yourself if you plug your own ears and then block the back of your throat off as if you were swallowing something, it’s a little hard to explain but seems to work reliably.
Bingo. Works every time, at least for me and for people I know who’ve tried it. I’ve never used confectioner’s sugar though, just a teaspoon of regular granulated sugar taken in a single gulp, followed by a glass of water.
I have no idea why.
Y’all might not believe this, but I swear this works. I had a woman I worked with years ago tell me about it, and everyone I have ever told about it swears by it. I have no idea whyit works… but it does.
Imagine in your mind a stage. Consentrate on it. Imagine the 10 BEST LOOKING men and/or women you have EVER seen(whatever floats your boat) standing on this stage, all entirely nekkid. Slowly pan down the line up, and look each one over from head to toe.
I guarentee you won’t get past the 3rd or 4th one, and your hiccups will be gone.
And you’ll have a smile on your face. 