I just proved to my daughter that pickle juice can cure hiccups that were going on for 20 minuets. Why? Salt? Vinegar? Believing it would work?
Never heard this on before, but Wikipedia says “Vinegar may stimulate the dorsal wall of the nasopharynx, where the pharyngeal branch of the glossopharyngeal nerve (the afferent of the hiccup reflex arc) is located.”
Seems snorting the stuff is even more effective and lemon juice works too.
My admittedly superficial understanding is that hiccuping is a feedback loop. Each hiccup stimulates the nerves and muscles that cause the next hiccup to occur and so on. What you need to stop hiccuping is some outside stimulus that breaks the cycle.
There must be a million ‘cures’ for hiccoughs. Cold keys down the back was one my mother favoured, or simply shouting BOO. I read that a teaspoon of granulated sugar is effective.
OTOH my daughter has a friend who has been hiccoughing for years - decades even. They are mostly quite small ‘hics’ and she barely notices them. She must have tried most remedies, including medication, without success.
That always reminds me of this:
RICK: Maybe sneezing is like hiccups, and you have to give him a frightful shock to make them go away.
…
VYVYAN: [puts down the knife, pauses, and throws himself on the ground, screaming]
[indent]My brain’s exploded! My brain’s exploded!!
[Neil starts sneezing again. Vyvyan stands]
It didn’t work.[/indent]
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