Hiccups are simple to explain: Your diaphragm (the major muscle involved in breathing
which sits like a cap over the stomach) goes into spasm. Things that promote
hiccups are:
Eating too fast, which causes you to
swallow air along with food
Doing things to make the stomach full
enough to irritate the diaphragm. One example is eating a lot of fatty foods in a short
period of time.
One doctor who studies hiccups thinks there is a hiccup center in the brain which triggers a spasm of the esophagus. This, he thinks, is a protective mechanism to keep a person from choking on food or drink. Luckily, hiccups are generally harmless and don't last very long.
Do the hiccups occur with severe abdominal pain and
spitting up blood or blood in the stools? |
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| Have the hiccups lasted longer than 8 hours in an
adult or 3 hours in a child? |
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| Have the hiccups started only after taking
prescription medicine? |
|
Luckily, there's no shortage of hiccup cures, and better still, most of them work (although some baffle medical science). A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 1 teaspoon of ordinary table sugar, swallowed dry, cured hiccups immediately in 19 out of 20 people (some of whom had been hiccuping for as long as six weeks). If this doesn't stop the hiccups right away, repeat it 3 times at 2-minute intervals. {Note: For young children, use a teaspoon of corn syrup.}
Other popular folk remedies worth trying include:
Hold your tongue with your thumb
and index finger and gently pull it forward.
With your neck bent backward, hold your
breath for a count of ten. Exhale immediately and drink a glass of water.
Breathe into and out of a paper (not
plastic) bag.
Swallow a small amount of finely cracked
ice.
Massage the back of the roof of your mouth
with a cotton swab. A finger works equally well.
Eat dry bread slowly.
Drink a glass of water rapidly. {Note:
Young children should drink a glass of milk slowly.}
HEALTH AT HOME - Your Complete Guide to Symptoms, Solutions, and Self-Care © 2000 by Don R. Powell. American Institute for Preventive Medicine.
Date updated 12/31/00