~~How to Cure Hiccups~~

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What about Hiccups!? I had it the whole day... I had to swallow a teaspoon of sugar twice just to get rid of it... it works!

Hiccups. We all get them. They can be uncomfortable, annoying and sometimes embarrassing but thankfully they are usually short-lived. However for some people hiccups can be a MAJOR problem. Take Charles Osbourne for example. He was an American pig farmer who began hiccupping in 1922 and didn’t stop until 1990! He hiccupped every one-and-a-half seconds for over 68 years! If only he had read this article…

What is a hiccup?

A hiccup starts way down in your diaphragm, the muscle that separates your chest from your abdomen. When nerves near the diaphragm are irritated, they cause the diaphragm to contract. When that happens, the diaphragm sucks air down your windpipe to your lungs. While the air is whooshing down, it is stopped suddenly by the sudden closing of your vocal cords. The result is a hiccup.

What causes hiccups?

Most hiccups occur for no apparent reason; that’s why they’re so hard to cure. Factors that may trigger hiccups are: overeating, drinking too quickly, smoking, anxiety, exercising soon after eating, and many others.

How to cure hiccups…

Eat sugar! A study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that one teaspoon of ordinary table sugar swallowed dry cured hiccups immediately in 19 out of 20 people. Repeat it three times at 2 minutes intervals if the hiccups do not stop immediately.

If that doesn’t work you could try some of these home remedies…

- Hold your breath. The oldest remedy of all and, for that reason, probably one of the most successful.
- Drink from the opposite edge of a glass. Just try not to make a mess!
- Eat crushed ice.
- Think of what you had for dinner last Sunday.
- Put your fingers in your ears, and get a friend to slowly feed you a glass of water.
- Eat bread slowly.

There are loads of methods for curing hiccups, although not all of them work for everybody; some people can be cured every time they have an attack using a particular method, while that method may never work on others. Just keep trying to find a cure that works for you, because you don’t want to end up like poor old Charles!