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December 25, 2008, 10:24 pm
Flag as Inappropriate DanaS  

I've been hit with a bad case of the hiccups that has lasted a couple of hours. My chest hurts!

How can I stop them?!

I've found that holding your breath really does work for me. Something else I have tried for really bad hiccups is to hold your nose and take a big drink of water.

Taking a drink is the only thing that ever helps me. Some people say it's more effective with a bit of sugar dissolved in it so that may be worth a try too.

My cure for hiccups:

1. Raise both arms up in the air as high as possible.

2. Take in the deepest breath you can.

3. Hold the breath as long as possible.

This has always worked for me. Another pharmacist I know insists that drinking water while upside down works. I've never tried this.

Jake Milbradt, PharmD

www.MrMedSaver.com

Drinking water upside down would be too much of a challenge for me. I find a sure cure is to have someone give me a good fright. I have had limited success with holding my breath.

I almost always get hiccups from the same thing and that is swallowing air usually from eating too fast. Drinking water or holding my breath helps but a good hopefully discrete burp usually fixes me right up.

I do not even think I can make myself be upside down let alone trying to multi-task something like that. Most times I can hold my breathe and they are gone. What does having your arms up do?

Raising the arms works by lifting the lungs up off the diaphragm, which is experiencing spasms-that is what you feel in a hiccup. This is the most effective of all things for me.

I remembered it had something to do with the diaphragm but was not sure exactly what. Is there a difference of how you go about getting either light or hard hiccups (the painful ones)?