# Ultimate Hicup Cure **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [February 1, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658 "2001-02-01T02:29:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cuzisaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cuzisaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuzisaid)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/1 "2001-02-01T02:29:05Z")
This works every time. Sit on a chair. Take a sip of water…don’t swallow. Put your head between your legs (or as far down as you can - just so your head is almost upside down). Then swallow. Do this three times in a row. And whala…GONE! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/2 "2001-02-01T03:29:37Z")
I presume that this is in reference to the classic column [What are hiccups and why do we get them?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_118.html)? When you’re commenting on a column by Cecil or the staff, it’s considered polite to include a link to the column, especially when it’s from a while age, so we all know what you’re talking about. Oh, and welcome to the Straight Dope! ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/3 "2001-02-01T22:16:58Z")
A technique that my father taught me, and that has generally worked for me for eating-related hiccups, is: While holding your breath, take nine or ten gulps of water. This has almost always worked for me to clear an esophageal bolus, and 100% of the time in other cases. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2001, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/4 "2001-02-01T22:24:28Z")
I skip the water part and just hold my breath. ---
**Author:** ![wastelands](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@wastelands](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wastelands)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/5 "2001-02-02T03:09:50Z")
Those all involve holding your breath, and the idea that a buildup of CO2 relaxes the muscle. However, any bartender worth his salt will tell you the a wedge of lemon soaked in Angostura bitters is absolutley guaranteed to work. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2001, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/6 "2001-02-02T13:44:32Z")
Actually, as far as I’m concerned, any hypothetical buildup of CO2 has nothing to do with it. It’s a question of forcing the esophagus into “swallow” mode, which holding the breath seems to encourage. (Note that this involves a phenomenon unique, if I recall aright, to _Homo sapiens,_ which may have something to do with the origins of the problematic hiccup reflex.) ---
**Author:** ![LittleVoiceFromVienna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8c91f0/32.png) [@LittleVoiceFromVienna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LittleVoiceFromVienna)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/7 "2001-02-05T10:05:25Z")
AFAIK, holding ones breath does it best, but it´s important to breathe out and then hold your breath, because hicups are caused by too much air inside you. ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/8 "2001-02-05T11:54:23Z")
The ultimate cure is to inject 100-200 grains of copper-jacketed lead into the base of the brain at 600-800 fps. This does, however, have undesirable side effects. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/9 "2001-02-05T19:18:49Z")
Akatsukami, while no one enjoys a good joke more than I (except for my wife, and my commanding officer; come to think of it, almost everyone enjoys a good joke more than I! - Thank you Graham Chapman), I think that at the SDMB we prefer to avoid posts that mention shooting someone in the head. Thank you very much. Cream pies in the face, however, are acceptable and even commendable. * * * moderator, «[**Comments on Cecil’s Columns**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/forumdisplay.php?forumid=1)» \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Modian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Modian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Modian)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/10 "2001-02-06T20:04:31Z")
The only sure fire way I have found to cure them is to eat a packet or spoon full of sugar. Clears em up immediately. Forgot where I learned this, but works a lot better than holding your breath. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/11 "2001-02-06T20:49:20Z")
Spoonful of sugar? You obviously learned that from Mary Poppins. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/12 "2001-02-06T21:05:55Z")
When you swallow, There’s a muscle that closes the trachea to keep stuff out of the lungs. It’s down at the base of the neck and you can feel it close when you swallow. As far as I can tell, a hiccup is a periodic spasm in that muscle (anyone know the name of it?). What I do for hiccups is to swallow and then deliberately hold that muscle in the closed position. This takes some practice, as it normally relaxes after you swallow and it’s not normally under voluntary control. But it can be done. I try to hold it in that position through the period that the next hiccup would normally happen. This cures the hiccups about 95% of the time, and for the times it doesn’t, the second time always works. Why it works, I don’t know. Perhaps it’s interrupting the spasm cycle. Or maybe it’s exhausting the muscle so it doesn’t spasm anymore. ---
**Author:** ![pmbrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@pmbrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pmbrig)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2001, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/13 "2001-10-08T03:30:46Z")
Re hiccups and how to cure them ([http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5\_118.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_118.html)) – there was an exchange of letters to the editor over several months in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) about 6-8 years ago on this. I recall that a few people looked into the various claims, and found that only one technique actually worked (according to small informal studies): a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. You have to swallow it before it completely dissolves in your saliva. Something about the combination of sweetness and the granularity on the back of the tongue… In a small study this worked about 80% of the time (in the study, the number of subjects was ~40, as I recall). I don’t think there was a direct comparison with other methods, but according to the authors, other methods were significantly less reliable. Sugar works for me, at any rate, pretty consistently. Peter M. Brigham, MD ---
**Author:** ![Syzygy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Syzygy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syzygy)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/14 "2001-10-09T01:35:27Z")
My hiccup cure always works, if done properly. I simply hold my breath. However, I must try to exhale, thus exerting pressure on the mechanism used to close my throat. Also, I cannot move significantly during this procedure. Excess movement causes me to hiccup while I’m holding my breath. Finally, I cannot let my breath out too quickly once I feel the hiccups have stopped. Now that I’m writing this all out, it doesn’t seem like a good solution. Perhaps I’ll try **pmbrig** ’s suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![SpectBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@SpectBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpectBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/15 "2001-10-13T19:56:52Z")
Smoking a doobie…and I have a site to cite. [http://www.life-enhancement.com/displayart.asp?ID=253](http://www.life-enhancement.com/displayart.asp?ID=253) More research is needed. Volunteers, anyone? ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2001, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/16 "2001-10-14T06:28:12Z")
The only thing I’ve found that seems to work for me consistently is to drink a carbonated drink. I don’t know whether the sugar content or the carbonation (or the combination of the two) that does the trick, but it works every time. My $.02, RR ---
**Author:** ![Elusive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/2bfe46/32.png) [@Elusive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elusive)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/17 "2001-10-15T19:29:41Z")
Drinking carbonated beverages are what give me the hiccups in the first place. Without fail. EVERY TIME. Granted, I have chronic hiccups, and have since the womb. ---
**Author:** ![Spiked](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@Spiked](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiked)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2001, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ultimate-hicup-cure/52658/18 "2001-10-16T14:27:38Z")
Try undiluted Peppermint Cordial. Works great for heartburn too. This tip was passed on to me by an old barman after a long drinking session, ending in loud & embarrassing hiccups. They must’ve been bad - the peppermint was “on the house” !!