I’m posting this one in IMHO because I firmly believe that it’s probably more of an opinion question (as much as I would like there to be a straight answer) and less of a cut/dry get to the bottom answer.
I mean… there’s gotta be a medical answer beyond the holding of the breath and the drinking of a glass of water while holding one’s nose. What the hell is it?
Typically (for me) the most obnoxious hiccups show their ugly face after a long bout of alcoholic bevvies, but two nights ago I had a vodka tonic at work, another when I got home and then I was done for. Hiccups for 25 minutes after two lousy drinks, AND I didn’t even drink them quickly.
I’ve heard:
-hold breath
-teaspoon of sugar
-breathe into a paper bag
-hold nose while drinking water
-ask someone to “scare” you
-bitters and lemon soaked w/sugar
-drink glass of water upside-down
Isn’t there some darn thing in the average medicine cabinet or spice rack that will absolutely CRACK them?
P.S. Here’s the litmus test to see if your method really works (but you have to be a loser cigarette smoker):
Try smoking a cigarette after the hiccups are “gone”. Getting a hiccup into a cigarette about ten minutes after you thought they were gone is about as annoying as people that don’t use their directionals.
Sorry if I’m wasting your time… bad me… I didn’t check the archives first.
Hmmm…I eat peanut butter. My mom drinks water upside down. Don’t ask me how she does it. Sometimes my hiccups get so bad I would most likely spill any water I was drinking. I have never had hiccups hurt, though. Just thought I would throw that piece of info at you. Oh, and I don’t get hiccups much. Maybe twice a year. Of course, I don’t drink…
A friend of mine told me the following method, which seems to work, at least for me.
Hold your breath for 15-30 seconds, while at the same time tensing your diaphragm, as if trying to exhale. When I do this, I generally get a sort of pressure-releasing feeling about the 20-second mark, and, once I let go… no hiccups.
NB: if some medical type wanders through this thread, and realises that this method does irreparable harm to the fragile membranes of the paraboloid exocardium, or something, I don’t want to know…
Cause I did the first time I heard this. When someone in our family gets the hiccups, we cure it by asking them their middle name. The hiccups stop. I swear.
The infallible cure, which I have read in advice from many doctors, is to swallow a spoonfull of coarse sand. Since many people find this unpalatable, the usual suggestion is to swallow a large spoonful of granular sugar. But it has to be swallowed DRY. It has to be irritating to the throat, there’s a nerve that is stimulated by the action of the grainy particles, this shuts down the hiccupping. I have tried this with many people and it has never failed yet (although one person actually puked… on ME!)
Luckily I rarely get the hiccups anymore, so I’ve never tried this:
Take a spoon (or similar object) in your mouth and bite it lengthwise with your back teeth, then drink some water with the spoon in your mouth. Any time someone around me gets the hiccups I tell them to do this, and so far it’s always seemed to work.
Swallowing 10 times without taking a breath. This is easier if you’re drinking water(swallowing 10 times in a row without the aid of liquid is difficult).
"A hiccup, also known as singultus & diaphragmatic spasm, occurs when a stimulus triggers the nerves which makes the diaphragm (the muscle that separates the lungs from the abdomen) contract involuntary causing the person to take in a quick breath of air into the lungs. The nerves involved here are linked to the diaphragm.
The air then causes a brief closure of the glottis (located in the voice box, its the opening between the vocal cords) to produce the “hic” sound."
Armed with this knowledge, I figure that if what’s causing hiccups is the spasming of the diaphragm, then what would cure it would be to regulate the diaphragm. You do this by taking very deep regulated breaths.
Inhale…1…2…3…4…5…
Exhale…1…2…3…4…5…
It’s important to fill your lungs with as much air as you can possibly take in, then exhale all the air you’ve just taken in.
I might take a few breaths, but it always works. You can’t be distracted as every single breath must be steady.
The only way to get rid of hiccups is to wait it out. Everything else you do is just killing time till they stop. (Granular sugar- nope didn’t take. Drinking water- hiccupped it up my nose. Didn’t try the vinegar, but there’s the whole vomitting thing to consider.) Like tapping the top of a shaken-up soda can. It doesn’t do anything, but it’s better than just standing there waiting.
Oh, wait… this might help… Sex.
[pathetic, whiney voice]
“But Honey, I have the hiccups, and it’s making my tummy hurt…”
[/pathetic, whiney voice]
-Rue.
Here’s an old Japanese method that has worked for me. Fill a small bowl (like a rice bowl) with water. Take a pair of chopstics, and place it on top of the bowl in a cross so that the chopsticks divide the bowl into 4 quadrants. Take a sip of water from each quadrant, being careful not to spill any water. To do this you have to lift the bowl+chopsticks and rotate them, not just move the chopsticks.
It takes a fair amount of concentration to do this, which I think is the point.
A surefire method that I found works like this: bow your head, as if in prayer. Breathe normally. Keep your head bowed and think of absolutely nothing. [Master Yoda]Clear your mind[/Master Yoda]. After about 30 seconds or so of meditating, your hiccups will be gone.
I think it’s the concentration factor, just like the Japanese bowl of water method, that does the trick.
Hmmmm, not sure about this, I can’t see that, say, dropping a cold key down someone’s back is going to take very long at all, but then I have my doubts about it’s efficacy as a cure too.
The vinegar thing really works (for me anyway) every time and it’s not actually all that bad.
Or you can try my method, which boasts a 98% success rate-
breathe quickly in & out for about 15 seconds with one hand pressing in on your diaphraghm
bend over as far as you can with a mouthful of water, count to five, and swallow
straighten up and breathe in & out slowly feeling your diapraghm for a count of five.
At this point, you’ll likely let loose with a huge belch, but your hiccups will be gone.
Oh, and to whoever suggested sex as a cure, let me just say that once I GOT hiccups during the act and it wasn’t pretty.
It throws off your rhythm somethin’ fierce, and gives rise to dialogue like:
