How to effectively cure your hiccups quickly.

Hiccups can be nasty. We all experience hiccups as they are very natural. Even though hiccups are important for our survival and help save us from choking, they can lead to social embarrassment. While for some it may stop in a few seconds after a sip of water but for others, it might take hours. Either way, many people want to just get rid of them fast and will try anything to stop their hiccups. There are some simple remedies that can help you get rid of hiccups easily. Let’s explain to you how to effectively cure your hiccups quickly.

Remedies For Hiccups

Hold Your Breath

One of the simplest and very well-known remedies for hiccups is holding your breath. Doctors recommend taking a deep breath and holding it for 10 seconds. While still holding your breath, inhale another sip of air and hold 5 seconds. Inhale one more sip and hold 5 more seconds. Then exhale. This has worked for me almost every time so I can personally vouch for this remedy. Try it out the next time you get hiccups.

Icing

Another quick and easy remedy is icing your body. You can do this by simply placing an ice pack over your diaphragm in the area just below your rib cage and above your navel. This method cools down your diaphragm and stops the spasm.

Suck some sugar

A very sweet way of stopping your hiccups is by sucking on a spoonful of sugar. Take a spoonful of dry sugar in your mouth and then close your mouth and suck on the sugar until it dissolves. This action disrupts the nerve impulses and stops the hiccups.

Put Paper Behind Your Ear

A much-weid way to distract the signals to the vagus nerve is putting paper behind the ears. This clever mental distraction is very easy. Simply tear off a piece of paper and twist it, so you can hang it behind your ear. This one isn’t just weird but also the easiest one to try.

Pressure points

There are a lot of pressure points in the body that are particularly sensitive to pressure. Those are:

Pull-on your tongue.
Press on your diaphragm.
Squeeze your nose closed while swallowing water.
Squeeze your palm.
Massage your carotid artery.

Things To Eat or drink

Certain things are recommended that can help stop hiccups:

Drink ice water.
Drink from the opposite side of the glass.
Slowly drink a glass of warm water without stopping to breathe.
Drink water through a cloth or paper towel.
Suck on an ice cube.
Gargle ice water.
Eat a spoonful of honey or peanut butter.
Eat some sugar.
Suck on a lemon.
Put a drop of vinegar on your tongue.

A hiccup is our body’s reflex to keep the airway clear. So, even as you try one of these remedies to stop the hiccups, do not try to resist or suppress a hiccup. Not only because you actually can’t suppress a hiccup but also because trying to do so may put undue pressure on your diaphragm and vocal cords. Do tell us if you have any other hiccup stopping remedy. If you want some more health tips, then do visit our Health section.