Hatrack River Forum: Hiccough cures

This is topic Hiccough cures in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :

When I was a kid, I tried every cockamamie trick I heard of to stop hiccoughs. And that's when they didn't hurt. Now I'm 42, and they hurt bad. But I found a cure about 7 years ago that has worked every single time, without exception.

I was thinking about why people find hiccough cures that they swear by, and then they don't work for other people. Do you think it's because of minor differences in anatomy from one person to the next?

Anyway, on the chance that this will work for other people, I take a glass of water, have someone stand behind me with their hands over my ears, and I drink until I run out of air. I come up with a gasp, and the hiccoughs are gone.

Someone told me it had to do with equalizing pressure. I can't figure outhow that can have anything to do with an irritation of the diaphragm, which is what hiccoughs are. I just accept that it works.

Anyone else have any success stories with it?

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

A slice of lemon soaked in Worcestershire sauce works for me every time. It is a bartender's trick. Sometimes, they will use lime and bitters.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Lisa, many of the tricks that I know have to do with increasing the level of CO2 in the lungs (and therefore the bloodstream). I suspect this one is like that.

Wikipedia explains why this works.

Your cure also involves swallowing, which wikipedia seems to think is primarily psychosomatic. I'm not sure I agree.

The paper bag trick always works for me.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

I just hold my breath till I think I'm about to pass out. That usually works. If it doesn't, it's because I could have held my breath longer, so I just start again.

Posted by BunnV (Member # 6816) on :

quote:
From Wikipedia:
Inserting one's thumbs in one's ears, closing one's nose with one's index fingers, and drinking a glass of water.

Wow, that's some trick. After thinking about it, I figured it'd help to use a straw.

Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :

The one I learned from my seventh-grade biology teacher has worked for me every time.

Take a glass of water. Bend over and drink from the opposite rim of the glass.

Usually about half a glass will do it.

[EDIT: And I see that it is listed in the wikipedia article]

--Mel

Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :

My dad used to stand me and my sister on our heads when we were little. It worked quite well.

Now I just hold my breath.

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

My dad always had us swallow/inhale a spoonful of sugar really fast. It's the only thing I've ever tried that actually works every time.

Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :

Hee hee.
I wonder how much of it is the BELIEF that the cure will work. Eeryone's method is the only one that has ever worked for them, and works every time.

Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :

Drink a glass of water through a paper (or cloth, maybe) towel. Through a straw you are pinching shut might work, too.

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

Try pressing the tips of your thumbnails together for two minutes. It distracts and calms you.

Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :

The one that works for me is plugging my nose and swallowing 5 times. If you can only get 4, thats ok.

Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :

I take a deep breath and hold it. If it doesn't work before I turn blue, I try again. Doesn't usually take more than two or three breaths.

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

Or you can try holding your breath for ten minutes. Always solves all my problems.

Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :

I've never seen a spoonful of peanut butter, sucked slowly, not work.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

It would be a cold, sad, grey world if I only did that when I had hiccups.

Posted by MandyM (Member # 8375) on :

I drink ten swallows of water without taking a breath. It is the only thing that works for me (although I have never plugged my ears). I have the kind that hurt too and for some reason I will get them a few times in one day and then go forever without getting them again. Weird.

Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :

(hopes digging_holes is referring to the peanut butter thing and not the holding breath for 10 minutes thing)

[Confused]

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

Hahaha.

Yes, I was referring to the peanut butter. I think if I held my breath for 10 minutes, I would be the one who was cold and grey, not to mention dead.

Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :

I don't get the hiccoughs, I get the hiccurps.
And got kicked out of a math review right at the important part because I couldn't stop belching.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

Seriously, though, in which country to they say "hiccough" instead of "hiccup"? Is it pronounced "Hickoff" or is there some other odd pronunciation?

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

I say hiccup. And write hiccup. Hiccough is for elitists.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

I beg to differ. I am an elitist, and I say and write hiccup. Whom.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

quote:
From Wikipedia:
A hiccup or hiccough (generally pronounced "hiccup" independent of the spelling)

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

Really? That's odd, and very interesting (as is usually the way with odd things.)

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Bologna.

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

Lasagna.

Of course, that's for'n.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

Yes, but there is only one spelling of that word, isn't there?

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

Which one, baloney?

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

I just discovered on dictionary.com that you can also spell it baloney or boloney. I didn't know that.

Odder and odder.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

I used to collect words like that, but it's been years. They're interesting, though.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

Indeed.

Of course, it should be "Baloni". Seems more elitist. [Razz]

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

You expect English to follow consistent rules?

*blink* [Laugh]

Posted by theamazeeaz (Member # 6970) on :

I thought it was hiccup, but since the person at the top spelled it "hiccough" and it didn't seem entirely off, I decided to follow suit.

Hiccurps however, are not hiccups.
They are an unladylike perversion of this affliction.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

No, there should just be an alternate "elitist" spelling for most words. You know, like : "Thair shüd be an alternate élitiste spellinge for moste wordes."

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

Quite unladylike. You must be ashamed.

And by the way, lasagna is often also spelled lasaney.

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

No, it isn't.

Posted by Sm34rZ (Member # 8609) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Joldo:
And by the way, lasagna is often also spelled lasaney.

That sounds soooo funny to me. I can't stop laughing.

Lasaney! Whew!

EDIT: Or spell right.

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

Totally true. Cross my heart.

Posted by Epictetus (Member # 6235) on :

In the words of Eddie Izzard: "You spell 'through' T-H-R-U, and I'm with you on that, because we spell it 'thruff' and that's just cheating at Scrabble."

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

[ROFL]

Lovely . . .

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

I have been looking for this poem off and on for years. Eureka!

quote:
O-U-G-H

by Charles Battell Loomis (1861-1911)

I'm taught p-l-o-u-g-h
Shall be pronounced "plow."
"Zat's easy w'en you know," I say,
"Mon Anglais, I'll get through!"

My teacher say zat in zat case,
O-u-g-h is "oo."
And zen I laugh and say to him,
"Zees Anglais make me cough."

He say "Not 'coo' but in zat word,
O-u-g-h is 'off,''"
"Oh, sacre bleu! Such varied sounds
Of words make me hiccough!"

He say, "Again mon frien' ees wrong;
O-u-g-h is 'up'
In hiccough." Zen I cry, "No more,
You make my t'roat feel rough."

"Non, non!" he cry, "You are not right;
O-u-g-h is 'uff.'"
I say, "I try to spik your words,
I cannot spik zem though."

"In time you'll learn, but now you're wrong!
O-u-g-h is 'owe'"
"I'll try no more, I s'all go mad,
I'll drown me in ze lough!"

"But ere you drown yourself," said he,
"O-u-g-h is 'ock.'"
He taught no more, I held him fast
And killed him wiz a rough.

Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :

[ROFL]

Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :

<-- is really laughing out loud.

Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :

In fact, IIRC, that poem (back when I first read it, some 15 years or so ago) is how I discovered that "hiccough" was pronounced "hiccup."

English is so weird. SEVEN different pronunciations of "ough"!

Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :

Mandy--"I drink ten swallows of water without taking a breath. It is the only thing that works for me (although I have never plugged my ears). I have the kind that hurt too and for some reason I will get them a few times in one day and then go forever without getting them again. Weird."

Me too! (all of it) How weird is that ??

Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :

quote:
bologna

quote:
baloney

The rule is that the singular form is bologna, and the plural form is bologni. [Big Grin]

Posted by Katarain (Member # 6659) on :

Bending over and drinking from the opposite side of a glass has always worked for me, too. Although sometimes I have to do it twice. I, too, learned it from a teacher--my U.S. History teacher in high school.

Once I didn't have any water, and bending over worked on its own. But I haven't been able to reproduce that.

Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :

I say le-ZAG-nee for lasagna. be-LOGG-na for boloney. ke-NIGG-ets for knights.

Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :

BOO!!!

(rarely works, but it's awfully fun)

Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :

My bologna has a first name...

Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :

Hold a pencil between your teeth and drink a glass of water. It's never failed for me.

Posted by JemmyGrove (Member # 6707) on :

[ROFL]

[Edit: I'm a moron. This was for Starlisa's last post.]

Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :

Has anyone noticed the ad at the bottom of the page?

quote:
Are You Clean Inside?
Why Kevin Trudeau highly recommends
colon cleansing in Natural Cures.

Do you suppose that this is helpful for hiccups?

Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :

Tante! THAT scared me! (much more than the BOO!)

Oh, wait my hiccups are..HIC!
Darn.

Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :

Doughnut start that again.

Posted by Treason (Member # 7587) on :

[Big Grin]

Wire ewe so silly?