how do you cure hiccups?

Question

I have my ways, but how do you do it. Funny answers count!

Answer 1

Your results may vary.






Steps
The Beckwith "Endless Breath" Method
The beauty of this method is that it requires no gadgets, cups of water, or anything other than breathing correctly. Nor does it require heavy breathing. On the contrary. It works by removing the irritating gap between the inspiration and the expiration, thus creating a continuous flow of slow-moving breath.
To do it, it helps to imagine breathing in a figure-8. As the outbreath reaches the end, slow the breath and twist it around so that it becomes the inbreath. Then simply create a figure-8 of continuous breath.
The hiccups will subside almost immediately. It has never NOT worked for me or my clients, and always works within 10 cycles. Usually less.
The technique is also useful for other breathing maladies.



Diaphragm Stretch
Lay down on your stomach, get comfortable.
SLOWLY breathe in until you feel like you can't inhale any longer, trying to get a feel for extending the breathe down towards your abdomen.
Exhale slooowly until your lungs are empty.
Repeat 3-4 times or until you feel better. Its a great relaxation exercise too!



Swallow Ear-Pop Method
Get a glass of water.
Fill mouth with water, but do not swallow.
Plug your nose, tilt head back and take deep breath.
Count to ten.
While holding your nose and while head is tilted back, swallow.
Drink Entire Glass of Water While Blocking Both Ear and Nose

Fill to the brim a glass of water.
With your thumbs, plug your ears.
With your index fingers, plug your nostrils (squeeze to close)
With both ears and nostrils plugged, use your remaining free fingers to grasp the glass and raise it to your mouth.
Drink the entire glass of water without releasing ears or nostrils.
YOU MUST FINISH THE ENTIRE GLASS OF WATER without releasing ears or nostrils!
Once empty, gently replace the glass on the table and SLOWLY unplug ears and nostrils and take a first breath.
Hiccups are gone!
IMPORTANT: PLEASE AVOID ATTEMPTING THIS CURE IN THE PRESENCE OF people who will make fun of you and try to make you laugh. DO IT ALONE THE FIRST TIMES and you'll soon be able to suggest it to your friends and other "unbelievers".



Holding Your Ears Method
Have someone cover your ears with their hands, applying pressure, but not enough to cause pain.
Drink a glass of water normally. This works great!



The Match Method
Light a match and drop it in a cup of water.
Drink the water from the cup, but make sure you do not swallow the match.



The Bottled Water Method
Get a bottle of water (Dasani, Evian, Wal-Mart, whatever brand suits you).
Instead of drinking normally, drink with your bottom lip in the lower portion of the opening and your top lip over the top. You develop a "vacuum" to to keep from spilling or pouring it down your shirt. It doesn't take much - just a sip or two. This works every time and quickly!



The Drinking Water Slowly Method
Fill two tall 12 oz. glasses with cool water and set them on a table in front of you. The second glass is for just in case you finish the first one, if you # really need it.
Close your eyes and settle yourself. Confidence and positive thinking is important here, so chill out and loosen up.
Pick up the first glass and wait for a hiccup. Just after it hits, begin drinking slowly, steadily and continuously until the glass is empty.
Try not to think about hiccuping as you set down the empty glass. Hopefully you'll have interrupted the rhythm of the hiccups, but if not then you'll have to go to the second glass.
Drink the second glass of water, slow and steadily, and do your best to remain calm and relaxed. By the time you've finished, the hiccups should be gone.



The Drinking Water Through a Paper Towel Method
Fill a glass with cool drinking water.
Get a clean paper towel. (If you have no paper towels, a thin cloth will work too.)
Cover the top of the glass with the paper towel. Fold down the edges of the paper towel to completely wrap the top of the glass. Hold the paper towel in place by grasping the glass in your hand.
Drink a sip of water through the paper towel.
One sip is often enough; if not, take a few more sips.



The Backward Glass Method
Fill a drinking glass with room temperature water.
With glass in hand, bend over at your waist.
Place your lips on the side of the glass opposite that from which you would normally drink. Your bottom lip should be above the lip of the glass where your top lip normally is and your top lip should be against the side of the glass against the edge where your bottom lip normally is.
Carefully tip the glass away from you and into your mouth.
Swallow and repeat. Your hiccups should be gone.



The Breathing and Water Method
Fill a drinking glass with room temperature water.
Take a deep breath.
Exhale all of your air (without breathing any back in).
Push out a little more air - there will be some!
Take a sip of water.
Breathe in a little through the nose.
Drink some more water.
Repeat steps 6 and 7 until you can't breathe in anymore.
Finish the glass of water on your last sip.
Breathe in a little bit more.
Hold your breath as long as you can.
Exhale.
Breathe a sigh of relief--your hiccups are gone!



The Breathing Method
Inhale and exhale 1 time slowly. As you exhale, push as much air out as possible (until your body forces you to inhale again).
Inhale deeply.
Hold your breath and your nose for 40 seconds.
Exhale slowly.



The Sugar Method
Eat a large teaspoon of white sugar or pour a packet of sugar into your mouth.
Chew it slowly, but do not let it dissolve. Or in many cases, just trying to swallow a teaspoon of sugar will work.



The Water and Sugar Method
Take a few deep breaths, holding the last one.
Take a mouthful of water, and hold it in your mouth, without swallowing, for 20 seconds.
Add a pinch of real sugar, and again hold without swallowing for 15 seconds. If the sugar has not dissolved, hold it until it does.
Swallow.
Take one more deep breath. Your hiccups should be gone.



The Burping Method
Swallow some air until you burp.
Burp.
Repeat until hiccups are gone.



The Mustard Method
Put one teaspoon of mustard in your mouth upside-down.
Close your mouth.
Slide the spoon out.
Repeat if necessary.



The Pressing Your Eyes Method
Lie down on the couch with your head on a small pillow.
Close your eyes.
Take your index fingers and press on your closed eyes for several seconds while breathing deeply.
When your hiccups are gone, remove your fingers and relax for a minute or two.



The Drink Lemon Juice Method
Obtain some lemon juice. Use the "RealLemon" kind or any other 100% lemon juice. Using a lemon flavored beverage (lemonade) will not work.
Fill a shot glass full or 1-2 ounces in a regular glass.
Drink it all at one time. It may be tart but it's not that bad.



The Look Up Method
Pour a glass of any beverage and place it in front of you.
Wait for a hiccup to come.
Once you hiccup, drink the beverage while looking up. Don't look down until you've emptied the glass.



The Tongue Method
Stick your whole tongue on your upper lip or the tip of your tongue on your upper lip.
Focus on your tongue and breathing slow.
If that doesn't work, put the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth (also cures brain freeze).



The Holding Your Breath Method
Not always effective, but hold your breath for 15-20 seconds.
Swallow 3 times while holding your breath.
If you feel as if it is not going to work, try again, after all, 3 times is the charm.



The Peanut Butter Method
Get a good-sized spoonful of peanut butter.
Swallow the whole spoonful immediately, don't chew it or get it all slobbery.



The Psychological Method(s)
Have a friend turn and stare at you and command you to hiccup. This works better if your friend knows to do this without needing you to ask. Tell them to wait until you are not expecting it, if possible.
If you are a teacher and a student is hiccuping, take the student to the front of the room and make them hold a piece of rolled up paper to his or her ear and tell them to take ten deep breaths.
Have someone startle/scare you to the point that you gasp without meaning to do so.
Do something that takes all of your thinking -- like solving a difficult math problem.
Think about what you had for dinner the day before, then the day before that and so on. Don't give up, keep thinking.



The Lying Down Method
Lay flat on your stomach (as flat as possible, even if you have to put your face to the ground).
Hold your breath and try to swallow as many times as possible.



The Pressure Method
Apply pressure on the indent between your upper lip and nose. Continue the pressure for 30 seconds, and your hiccups should disappear.



The Bag Method
Put a bag around your mouth so that when you breath from your mouth, the bag will capture the air. Don't cover your nose.
Take deep breaths and exhalations through your mouth from the bag. No fresh air!
Keep repeating this process. The hiccups should vanish within 8-10 long breaths (if it doesn't work by this time, try another method).



The Waiting method
Calm down, and focus on breathing.
Try counting your hiccups, or the number of time in between hiccups.
Wait until they stop.



The Coughing Method
Count amount of time between hiccups.
Around the time a hiccup should be coming up, or when you feel it coming up COUGH, loudly!
Repeat 3 or 4 times.



The Balanced Body Method
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, knees bent, arms relaxed.
Close your eyes, and become aware of subtle forces on your body.
Allow your body to sway with the forces, arms floating and drifting.
5-10 seconds are usually enough. Watching someone else do it also works.



The Vinegar Method
Get a tablespoon (sometimes a tea spoon will work) and fill it with vinegar.
Directly after a hiccup swallow it.
This should shock you and get rid of the hiccups.



Bio-Electric Stimulation
Consider that Phil Ehlinger, Jr. reportedly discovered that he could cure the hiccups by use of natural galvanic action to create a bio-electric stimulation that instantly stops the distressing spasms. The sub-sensory treatment “re-sets‿ the causal Vagus and Phrenetic nerves to interrupt the Hiccup Reflex Arc. Ehlinger was awarded a United States Patent (#7,062,320) for a "Device for the Treatment of Hiccup" on June 13, 2006 after 3 years and several reviews. Ehlinger has formed a corporation and plans to release the device in 2006.



The Eye-Staring Method
Stare into someone's eyes for a minute or two, and your hiccups should go away. They have to be staring back.



The Pencil Method
Fill a glass up with room temperature water.
Hold a pencil horizontally with your lips, keeping your mouth slightly open.
Drink the water with the pencil in your mouth. The air will flow differently into your mouth, causing the hiccups to stop.



The Claw Method
Hold both hands in front of you and clench hands as if you're a tiger or bear about to attack.
Hold for about 10 seconds, hiccups will be gone. It helps to imagine you're holding on to a tree branch with both hands as tightly as you can.



Tips
Remember to relax! Hiccups can be partly psychological, so the most effective method will likely be the method that you suppose will be the most effective, as long as you believe that deeply. Keep a positive attitude and breathe deeply.
It's all right to breathe between swallows, but structure the breaths as "inhale, gulp, exhale, gulp," and so on.
Cooler water works better than warmer water.
Try not to anticipate the dreaded next hiccup - you might just bring it on.
You can substitute straight sugar with extremely sweet candy like Skittles.
Hiccups are caused by spasming of the diaphragm, the muscles under our lungs that controls our breathing. Just like any muscle spasm it's best controlled by slow, even stretching of the muscle. Any hiccup cure that can do that, should work.
Try not to laugh, usually that just tences up the muscles that you need to loosen. Its a good idea to think of somethink serious, because sometimes some of the cures make you laugh.



Warnings
Don't try these techniques after a big meal.
If you swallow too much air, you might get a slight stomach ache. It will go away as you will eventually burp.




Was this article accurate?
Edit This Page
Discuss This Page
Thank the Authors
Write a new wikiHow
E-mail this to a Friend
Printable version



Subscribe to Daily How-to




Initial Author: Steve Levenstein .
Contributors: Anonymous, Jack H , Sean Hickey , Krystle C. , Buzzbo and others.

This page has been accessed 19,673 times. This page was last modified 16:33, 12 November 2006.



Search wikiHow:

Home | About wikiHow | Help | Terms of Use | RSS | Inspired by MediaWiki | Visit eHow


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

Answer 2

Fill a glass with water, and drink from the opposite end that you usually would so you have to tip your glass forward. Almost like drinking it upside down! Kinda weird to do at first.

Another way is you actually try to hiccup, and you can't do it, so you stop your hiccups.

And of course there is always the good friend who, of course, has your best interests in mind when they jump out of nowhere and scare the living daylights out of you.

Answer 3

Hold your breath! Its a scientific fact that if you hold it long enough that it will end the hiccups. Permanently!!

Answer 4

Drink water for ten seconds with your ears plugged, always works, unless you hiccup while you're drinking.

Answer 5

I do it the old fashion way, by holding my breath. I have also heard you can swallow water upside down or scare someone. How do you do it?

Answer 6

I take a deep deep breath, as deep as possible, then swallow. Sounds strange I know, but it works...then I let the breath out as slow as possible, and they're gone!

What's your way?

Answer 7

Screaming works best for me-I'm not kidding. I make sure I am in an enclosed vehicle and then scream. It stops them cold.

Answer 8

calm down. they are caused by nerves. Babies get them more often because their nervous system isn't fully funtional yet. So just close your eyes...breathe deep, and realx.

or you can jump start the nerves by scaring the crap out of yourself. or having someone else scare the crap out of you.

Answer 9

its hard to describe hold the cup with water and put ur mouth on the side away from u bend foward and try to drink workks every time

Answer 10

I breathe slowly and deeply, concentrating on making my respiratory diaphragm relax. works every time.

Answer 11

the method my fiance swears by is to put a spoonful of sugar underneath your tounge, then slowly suck on it. he says it always works for him, but it didn't work for me.