In one of the ‘classic’ columns:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_118.html
Cecil Adams writes:
"Which brings us to the question of hiccup cures, of which a great many have been proposed. Unfortunately, to paraphrase the distinguished physician Charles Mayo, the number of remedies is in inverse proportion to the likelihood that any one of them will actually work.
Home remedies are mostly based on the idea that you have to disrupt the hiccup cycle. These include holding your breath, induced sneezing, breathing into a bag, drinking water while covering your ears, pulling your tongue, pressing on the eyeballs, sudden fright, or–this is interesting–eating dry granulated sugar. Merely drinking water, if done soon enough, may work by washing down a glob of food in your throat that’s pressing against a nerve."
One of the few really useful things I learned in junior high school came from Mr. Sherbo’s eighth-grade biology class. This is a hiccup cure that requires no paraphernalia, is painless, and in my experience is successful at least 95% of the time.
It works by disrupting the hiccup cycle, which Mr. Sherbo explained as a feedback loop involving muscles that are usually on “automatic pilot” but can be consciously controlled when desired. The “script” for the cure is a very effective way of switching the muscles to conscious control. Here’s what I’d say to you if you had hiccups:
“Please tell me when your next hiccup is just about to happen. Concentrate on the sensation in your chest and stomach, and just before the next hiccup starts, I want you to raise your hand and tell me, ‘Neil, I’m going to hiccup.’ Don’t let one slip by you.”
After a minute or so, the “patient” will realize that the next hiccup hasn’t happened and isn’t going to happen.
You can even cure your own hiccups with the same technique: all that matters is the conscious attention to anticipating the next spasm. The idea of raising the hand and announcing the next hiccup is just a way to focus the attention on anticipating the event.
I’ve only had this fail in a couple of situations, where the “patient” was too agitated or too distracted by external circumstances to be able to focus on the anticipation process.
In every other case over three decades of trials, I’ve found this to be the World’s Greatest Hiccup Cure. Please spread the word: it deserves to be better known.
-Neil Midkiff