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I always get hiccups. They usually hit when I eat certain foods-especially carrots and pretzels. Strange, I know. Once the hiccups come they generally decide to stick around for a while. Not great for conference calls or anything work related when talking or communicating is needed.
In hiccup desperation I turned to my active Facebook community [2] and asked their advice for getting rid of hiccups. They came up with some interesting suggestions, some that were familiar and others that were way out there. At this point I’m willing to give anything a shot to keep the hiccups away. Here are a few hiccup remedies (some I’ve tried and some I have yet to experiment with).
- Swallow a teaspoon of sugar followed by a glass of water. (Thanks Anna [3] and a few others for this one!)
- Stick your tongue out as far as you can and pinch your tongue (one finger on top and one on the bottom) as close to the connecting part you can for 30-60 seconds. It is an acupressure tool that works for a huge percentage of people. Repeat if it does not work on the first try making sure your tongue is sticking out far and you are pinching hard enough. FYI chronic hiccupping can be caused by acid reflux and may need an antacid therapy for a few days. Thanks to Leigh for this interesting technique that I have yet to try.
- Drink a glass of water, upside down. Take a glass, half-full & tip your head forward, towards your chest. Put the rim of the glass on your top teeth and tilt glass forward. Take a small dip and swallow while still leaning forward. Voila!
- This is one of my favorites: Take the hand of the person afflicted and squeeze hard on the surface of the fingernail of the pinky finger [4] for ten seconds. This guys swears it works he was told it works because there are acupressure points in the pinky that control and relax the throat. Pretty cool.
- Relax and wait for them to be over. It’s a muscle spasm, so stretches or a warm tub/drink sometimes helps.
- Take a deep belly breath in and push the air as far down into your lungs as you can to help stretch out your diaphragm. Hold it in for a few seconds. Works like clockwork!
- Eat a teaspoon of peanut butter.
- Light a match and extinguish it by dropping it in a glass of water. Do this with about 6 to 8 matches. Then drink the water. Works every time! This is a new one for me. Would be interested to know if it really works.
How to you get rid of hiccups?
photo credit: Caro Wallis [5] via photopin [6] cc [7]