# Rewiring your brain to stifle hiccups **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 5, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238 "2019-01-05T05:15:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/21 "2019-01-07T18:29:10Z")
Anyone else hear of the sugar treatment? Put a spoonful of sugar in your mouth and let it melt and you’ll get rid of the hiccups? It works for me, and works well enough that Mom would always force a spoonful of white sugar on me whenever I started hiccuping. As much as I have a sweet tooth, a full spoon of white sugar is nasty ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/22 "2019-01-07T20:31:41Z")
I just got over the hiccoughs. Gazing at my navel and telling my diaphragm to stop didn’t work. So I just tried to ignore them and they stopped after about 15mins or so. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/23 "2019-01-08T03:04:16Z")
My hiccup cure I hit my chest with my fists, firmly not to easy and not to hard. And mentally count to ten in French. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/24 "2019-01-08T21:14:54Z")
Hiccups as I understand it are caused when a reflex gets caught in a loop. That’s why normal hiccups can be cured by so many apparently unrelated methods; anything that disrupts the loop will work. ---
**Author:** ![icantdraw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3ec8ea/32.png) [@icantdraw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icantdraw)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/25 "2019-01-09T19:38:52Z")
Since I was young (I’m 48 now) my mother would always off me cash to hiccup… hiccup… hiccup… hiccup (mother) Hiccup again and I’ll give you $5. (me) ………. dammit Doesn’t work for me anymore (since I don’t want my parents money), but it works on my kids. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/26 "2019-01-09T22:13:47Z")
The only hiccup cure that has ever worked for me, taught to me by a roommate in college. (I used to get really bad hiccups after drinking lots of beer.) Take a deep breath, as slow as you can. Let it out, as slow as you can. Repeat as needed. After about half a dozen deep breaths, hiccups are gone. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2019, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/27 "2019-01-09T23:18:37Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > I then consciously thought “Stop hiccuping, you stupid diaphragm” for a good hour until I wasn’t hiccuping anymore. Now, when I start to hiccup, I just mentally say “stop hiccuping, diaphragm” and then my hiccups go away. Every time my dog barks at a helicopter, the helicopter flies away. I suggest all dogs with helicopters invading their airspace try it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/28 "2019-01-10T01:17:12Z")
I find there are two types of hiccups: the kind that is caused by an immediate stimulus that I can remove simply by removing the stimulus (usually by swallowing, possibly with water to help, but sometimes just by holding things still), and the kind that gets triggered and doesn’t want to stop. I haven’t had the latter in years. Still, as such, it would be possible the OP had the second kind first, and they happened to stop as you told them to. But, since then, you’ve only had the second kind, and they resolved quickly on their own, or after you subconciously swallow to stop them. A weird thing I have is that certain types of coughs will cause a single hiccup at the same time. It actually seems to get in the way of coughing something up. And don’t praise my inability to have long hiccup fits. It may be coincidence, but I seem to have traded them for the occasional laryngspasm, where you larynx locks into place and you feel you can’t breathe for about a minute. You can breath, but only if you don’t try too hard, and your instinct is to try (especially right upon waking, which is when the most often happen to me.) ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/29 "2019-01-11T03:55:26Z")
So I had hiccups last night and the “thinking the hiccups away” didn’t work. So I did what I used to always do, something I call “swallowing air” where I seem like I’m swallowing air. After a few of these swallows, I have to burp, and then the hiccups go away. I’ll continue to work on the “willing the hiccups away” procedure. ---
**Author:** ![RememberMe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@RememberMe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RememberMe)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2019, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/30 "2019-01-12T18:07:10Z")
Started doing this when I was in my teens, I am 35 now and it has worked immediately, EVERY SINGLE TIME: Plug your ears while drinking a cup of liquid with a straw. I am still waiting for the time that this does not work, but each time is still a success. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238/31 "2019-01-14T17:15:12Z")
My theory after reading about lots of “cures” is that hiccups are just a twitch of the diaphragm. Generally only relaxed muscles twitch so keeping your diaphragm tense will stop common hiccups. Note that many of the cures have that side effect. My technique is to take as deep a breath as possible, hold it while tensing my abdomen until the interval between hiccups has passed. This usually breaks the cycle. I have noticed that the sooner in a bout of hiccups the more effective. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rewiring-your-brain-to-stifle-hiccups/827238.md?page=1)