I swear by the hold-your-breath method, because it works all the time for me I'm asking because I had a short bout of hiccups this morning, and it led me to wonder why all these "remedies" are around and whether they really work or not. I haven't tried any of the other methods.. but they all seem like such a hassle compared to the simplicity of just holding your breath for a while, it's a wonder they even exist. Can anyone enlighten me on this subject? EDIT: ****, I meant to post a poll with this. Um.. let's do it manually - Hold your breath as long as possible - Take a spoonful of something sweet - Drink a glass of warm water - Breathe into a paper bag - Breathe through a wet cloth - Stand on your head - Stick a finger up your arse - Other (please elaborate) - I don't get hiccups, ever / I just wait for them to go away
someone showed me one that worked GREAT--but i forgot it.. somethin about plugging your ears or closing your nose while drinking something.. somethin like that. hopefully this thread brings it out
Drink a cup of water from the other side of the cup which is further from you. Hot water is better. It worked for me everytime. I sometimes simulate the gesture without a cup of water, it still works.
This works every time: 1.) fill up a glass of water 3/4 2.) stretch a napkin of medium thickness over the top so that it forms a tight cover 3.) Drink all the water through the napkin without sucking in air (the napkin acts as a filter) 4.) Kiss your hiccups good bye This works by creating a suction that pulls the trapped air out of your system.
This was always the only way to cure mine... Fill a glass halfway with cold water, stick a metal butter knife in the cup with the blade pointing up, hold the blade flat-ways against your temple and drink the water. Don't know why it works. I got it from one of those Asian Remedies books.
See I'm sure all these methods work to some extent for different people, but my point was that holding your breath is a) the easiest of them all, and b) proven to be effective. If I'm not wrong, hiccups are caused by spasms of the diaphragm. So when you take a deep breath and hold it, the expansion of your lungs causes them to push down on your diaphragm, which stops or at least suppresses the hiccups Of course the other methods are more fun, I'm sure But nothing beats results..
I think it's a power of the mind thing. I don't think anything really gets rid of hiccups, but people THINK that all these weird remedies work. I'm sure that if you believed hard enough that spinning around in a chair 25 times while singing Camptown Races will cure hiccups, then your hiccups will go away...
Get scared. If you have the hiccups...then you need to be "scared" for them to go away when you want them to. This is the reason standing on your head would work as a kid and accidentally having hot water spill all over your works now, because you get frightened, and sure enough - the hiccups go away. I usually just tell a friend to find a way to scare me - and it works if they can effectively catch me by surprise on something.
If being scared is all it takes, then here ya go... <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hQs-3qOy9Gk"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hQs-3qOy9Gk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
One way that works consistently for me is to have a buddy say, "I'll give you a million bucks if you hiccup again." Somehow, really trying to hiccup makes them go away. This works better for me than holding my breath. Of course you may not want to try this around lawyers
This is one of the funniest threads I've ever read! I'm picturing someone sitting there going, "Hmmmm...what can I make him do?" LOL!!
Sure, but holding my breath is a hit-or-miss proposition. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Eating sugar always works. And, eating sugar is easier than holding my breath anyway.
