When hiccups get worse
Hiccups are caused by uncomfortable, involuntary tightenings of your diaphragm. If you don’t know how to make them go away, they can be very aggravating and even excruciating.
Quite often, hiccups only last a brief while, but other times, they can rage on and on throughout the day. There are even some individuals who have set world records for having hiccups for months at a time.
Hiccups are difficult to deal with if you do not know exactly how to make them stop. They can be a genuine pain as well as an inconvenience. Friends, family, or coworkers might try to scare them out of you but with little success.
The next time you’re having trouble with diaphragm spasms, go ahead and try a few of the natural home remedies listed below to see if you can put those exhausting hiccups to rest. After checking out these ideas, you’ll be ready to nip hiccups in the bud yourself before they cause any additional discomfort.
Though some of these methods may seem deliberately non-scientific, a few of them, in fact, may be more effective than the suggestions you’ve heard in the past.
Keep this list handy in case you or someone you know gets stuck with an especially bad case of the hiccups that just won’t go away.
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Increase your carbon dioxide intake
One way to get rid of pesky hiccups is to increase the amount of carbon dioxide you take in. This can be done a few different ways.
One method is to provide your lungs with a double dose of carbon dioxide by holding your cupped hands over your mouth and nose and taking regular breaths. The carbon dioxide you normally exhale will be taken in again, helping to settle your diaphragm.
This will certainly disrupt hiccups as your body makes up for the extra carbon monoxide in your blood.
Holding your breath is another great way to take in more carbon dioxide than usual. It builds up carbon dioxide in your lungs, which ought to aid and unwind your diaphragm. If simply holding your breath doesn’t work well enough, attempt holding your breath and also swallowing two or three times.
Cupping a paper bag to your mouth as well as breathing in and out quickly might alleviate missteps promptly. Like holding your breath, the paper bag technique will accumulate carbon dioxide in your lungs, which will certainly aid loosen up the diaphragm.
Raid the pantry
A few different basic household foods and beverages can help you get rid of the hiccups fast.
One hiccup treatment that will decrease your hiccups quickly is to eat a teaspoonful of sugar! Researchers believe that it somehow assists the regulation of the spasmodic muscle mass impulses in the diaphragm that create problems.
Gelato and pickle juice can have a similar effect on your hiccups, and these solutions are tasty, too.
If you’re having trouble drinking water, there are other ways to apply cold to your diaphragm.
Prepare a cold pack and hold it directly over your diaphragm, located just beneath your rib cage. Keep it right there to cool down the muscles until the convulsions (and also your hiccups) stop.
Bartender tips
Bartenders have a lot of experience when it comes to curing hiccups for customers.
Experienced bartenders recommend dabbing a lemon with bitters and having the hiccup victim suck on the lemon. Some barkeeps claim this is a rapid and also fool-proof treatment.
Dripping Tobasco sauce on the tongue has also been used as a hiccup home remedy for many years. If you can stand the taste, give it a try!
Use your hands
There are a few methods for curing a case of the hiccups that don’t require any outside resources at all. Instead, you can just use your hands and fingers to try to reset your body and get rid of the problem in no time.
While it may be a little bit awkward if you’re in public, if you go home or can find a private place, this method is extremely practical:
Pull on your tongue. This stimulates the glottis, or the opening in between your vocal cords, which can reduce the convulsions that are the source of your hiccups.
Another method is to stick your fingers in your ears and keep them there for 25 to 30 seconds. This strategy will certainly send a message to your mind to unwind the vagus nerve, soothing your hiccups.
These are just a few ways that you can use common household objects and your own body to get rid of hiccups and get back to your normal daily routine.
That said, there are always more methods out there that we haven’t heard of before. Go ahead and do some additional online research into the topic.
Don’t let it stop there, either. Ask your friends and family members about how they’ve gotten rid of their own hiccups in the past. They just might have a few ideas that you’ve never heard of before.
Chances are your family members can tell you about special techniques that have been passed down for generations within the family, based on fact, fiction, or plain old family tradition.
Maybe your friends come from vastly different cultures and have had experience using home remedies and special ideas that you’ve never even heard of before.
Until you actually get the chance to try these methods out yourself, try your best to keep your mind open and accept as many different ideas as possible.
If you have a special way to get rid of hiccups without having to visit a doctor, feel free to let us know what it is. We’d love to hear which techniques you used as a child and which ones worked the best out of all of them.
If you have the chance, try out some of these methods and let us know which ones worked and which didn’t. After all, every person is different and our bodies can respond differently to certain stimuli.
