COMMENTS: stop hiccups dead: wisdom that works

I get the hiccups quite often. Whenever I drink carbonated beverages I get them and the hiccups are then followed by a dainty, ladly-like burb. It can actually be painful. But sometimes I think I just breathe too fast and I start to hiccup.
I just hold my breath as long as possible to get rid of them. Nothing fancy, but it works for me.

Posted by becca | July 27, 2004 02:29 PM

Mom once taught me to hold the webbing between my thumb and pointer. It seriously works. I'm not kidding. I know this because I used to get hiccups every day...still kind of do...

Posted by Chris | July 27, 2004 03:43 PM

fucking lies...

Posted by chris | July 29, 2004 07:27 PM

No, man, it's so totally, totally true. The only real way to stop hiccups is the "take voluntary control of the spastic muscle" method. Other methods only work, to whatever degree they work, because you end up doing this while you're gauging to see whether you're cured yet or not. Oh, well, and maybe the totally scary method described here: http://www.medical-online.com/curehiccups.htm Be sure to scroll down and check out this guy's other sound advice!

Posted by Andy | July 30, 2004 12:00 AM

For those of us who fall short of Zen-like control of our autonomic nervous system, mechanical assistance can be useful in stilling the rambunctious hiccup muscle.

The method that I learned as a child from my mother was to "drink a glass of water upside down." Hold a glass of water, lean over, and drink from the far side of the glass. While your muscles are working hard to push the water up your throat, it distracts them from the hiccups. And it does not cause any "sensations of drowning."

Posted by Litza | August 4, 2004 11:29 AM