Stop the Unstoppable Hiccups

Healthy Living
Common Ailments

Without causing a pain in the real sense, non-stop hiccups can be a real pain. Medically speaking, a hiccup (some prefer to refer to it as hiccough) is an involuntary spasm of the diaphragm. It can go on for several minutes or longer. It is often triggered when diaphragm is irritated by any of the following causes:

• Eating too quickly

• Mixing cold and hot or spicy food

• Laughing vigorously

• Coughing forcefully

• Drinking an alcoholic beverage to excess

• Crying out loud

• Abnormal inhalation while smoking

• Electrolyte imbalance

• Pressure on the phrenic nerve by any anatomical structures

Even when not categorised as a disease or disorder, hiccups can sometimes be really pestering. Usually hiccups go away by themselves in a short time and don’t require any major treatment. But when they persist, you can rely on home remedies.

However, in spite of there being many well known home cures, sometimes what may work for one, may not work for another. Also, there are chances that what baled you from this annoyance once, may prove futile the next time. So, it makes sense to be armed with more than one home remedies options. To equip yourself with many alternative ways to stop this unstoppable, read on:

Some simple techniques:

• Keep your fingers pressed inside your ears and drink 10 gulps of water.

• Bend your head backwards and massage your throat for 5 minutes.

• Rub the ear lobe gently, for 5 minutes.

• Rub on your eyeballs slowly over your eyelid, repeat 15 – 20 times.

• Irritate your nose with a piece of folded cloth – so that you start sneezing – but be cautious to not to push in right in – as it can stop one problem and start another.

• Chew mint leaves.

• Swallow a teaspoon of sugar. Or, keep a spoonful of sugar on your tongue and let it dissolve slowly.

• Take 2 tablespoonful of honey.

• Drink warm milk.

• Eat peanut butter.

• Drink a glass of lemon or tomato juice.

• Suck on a hard candy.

Psychosomatic (Mental Control) Techniques:

• Distract yourself. This may be the best time to pick up the phone and call your worst enemy or best friend. Alternatively, you can start doing something that you can get so engrossed in that you forget about hiccups.

• Sit still waiting for the next hiccup. Surprisingly enough, sometimes even this stops hiccups.

• Start counting or saying tables – the more you concentrate on numbers, more the gap between the hiccups will increase. Finally the hiccups will stop.

Respiratory (Breathing Control) Techniques:

• Huff as you do when you may do in sudden exclamation or when startled by someone’s sudden, unexpected appearance. This will send alert signals to your brain and to get ready to the situation, it will stop the hiccup.

• Practice deep breathing. The concentration needed for this, helps in stopping the hiccups.

• Blow out air through your mouth as you may do to blow a balloon. Empty your lungs fully. Cough and continue to blow again. This will relax the diaphragm and stop hiccups.

• Exhale out completely, hold your breath and swallow two or three times. (Swallowing can be done - dry, using saliva or drinking a small sip of water).

If none of the above remedies work for you, try this Acupressure procedure:

• Rest your palms on your cheeks while placing your fingers on the forehead covering the eyes.

• Place your thumb on the temples and massage the temples slowly by pulling your thumb downwards.

• Repeat for 5 minutes.

• Then, remove your hands and lightly press the tip of your nose with your fingers.