10 Little-Known Ways to Stop Your Annoying Hiccups & It’s Not Drinking Water

By
George Yang
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Last Updated on 2020-11-16 , 10:59 am

Hiccups strike at the most inopportune of time, and once they start, it’s pretty hard to stop.

We’ve been there and tried that, and it is possibly the most embarrassing thing that can happen on a date.

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Imagine trying to kiss with hiccups. It’s practically impossible.

Before we go into the ways to stop hiccups, here’s a fun fact about this condition: The longest ever time period for continuous hiccups was – wait for it – 68 years.

Yes, 68 long years with hiccups every 10 seconds.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the honor belongs to Charles Osborne (1892-1991), from Anthon, Iowa, USA who hiccuped his way from 1922 to 1990. Unfortunately, he passed away a year after his hiccups stopped.

While there are several theories behind why you hiccup, ranging from eating too fast to gas in the stomach, experts are still divided on what causes them.

But that’s not important, because we’re not really interested in what cause them. What we really want to know is how to stop them, right?

Here are 10 little-known ways to stop hiccups before they persist and ruin your date, or worse, your day with that special someone.

Breathing technique

Here’s what you do the moment you have hiccups. Breath in and hold your breath for approximately 10 seconds, and let it out slowly and repeat for a few times. Repeat 20 minutes later and hopefully, your hiccups will be a thing of the past.

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Alternatively, you can breath in a paper bag

It’s similar to what you should do when you’re hyperventilating. Seal the opening of the bag around your mouth and breath in and out 10 times, fast and furious. But of course, be comfortable too. But please don’t do this though:

Drink from the opposite side of the glass

You’re going to look silly doing that, but hey, if it works, it works right? And you’ll have another conversation topic with your date if it works too. Stand up, bend forward, tilt the glass away from you and sip at the drink. You’d either have successfully gotten rid of your hiccups, flashed your partner, or both.

Apply gentle pressure on your nose while swallowing

Sometimes, it might just need a simple solution. Try this, apply some pressure on your nose and swallow. If done right, your hiccups will be gone like a bad dream.

Drink without breathing

Drink a glass of warm water slowly without breathing in or out. Remember, it must flow consistently.

Shock your system with something sour

Okay, not shock but we guarantee that doing this will shock your body anyhow. Take a slice of lemon, pucker up and suck on it like a sweet.

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Iced water

Get a bottle of chilled ice mountain and gargle in the toilet. If you’re sitting in a restaurant, ask for iced water and sip from it slowly.

Put some sugar on your tongue

Hold some sugar on your tongue and let it melt. When it does, swallow it. Even if it doesn’t help, hey, at least it’s tasty right?

Pull your tongue

Sounds silly, but apparently, it might just work. Hiccups usually occur because there is sudden, involuntary contractions of the diaphragm and a total closer of the glottis, which is located in the middle of the vocal cords which blocks air intake.

By tugging on your tongue gently, it might just ease diaphragm spasms, which will ease away your hiccups. Do be careful to tug gently though, you wouldn’t want to end up vomiting on the floor because you’ve triggered your gag reflex, or tear your tongue out of your mouth, right?

Do nothing

Sometimes, there’s really nothing you can do to stop them. Hiccups usually goes away by themselves after some time, but if yours doesn’t, it might be a good idea to visit a doctor if the condition persists for 48 hours (hiccups for 48 hours?!) because it can lead to depression, insomnia and fatigue.

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Featured Image: 9nong / Shutterstock.com

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George Yang
Email: [email protected]