Dealing with hiccups, meaning the involuntary spasms of our diaphragm, can be very annoying, especially if the phenomenon occurs during something important. For instance, imagine if hiccups kick in in the middle of your job interview. Regardless of the situation, hiccups can be extremely annoying and unpleasant, so let’s find out what we can do to keep them at bay!
It’s important to keep in mind that usually, hiccups are harmless and will go away by themselves after only a few minutes. However, in other cases, hiccups can even last for days or weeks, indicating possible underlying disorders.
Hold your breath and swallow
When those annoying hiccups start, one method to get rid of them is by holding your breath deeply for as long as possible. As you hold your breath, you have to swallow a few times. This process can help reset the rhythm of your diaphragm and stop the hiccups.
Drink water rapidly
Go ahead and drink a lot of water rapidly when the hiccups occur. Drink a bottle if possible. It’s important to drink a lot of water without stopping to breathe. This process will stimulate the vagus nerve and interrupt the hiccup reflex.
Optionally, you can also try gargling with water to stimulate the back of your throat, which can also stop the hiccups. Therefore, you will have to take a mouthful of water, tilt your head back, and gargle for several seconds before you spit it all out.
Apply pressure to the diaphragm
You can also try to gently press down on your diaphragm to help stop those nasty hiccups. If you don’t know where the diaphragm is, the answer is simple: you can find that part of your body between the chest and abdomen, just below the ribcage. For that purpose, you can simply lean forward a bit and apply pressure using your fingers or palm.
Hyperventilate
If the other methods of stopping those hiccups fail, you can also try the hyperventilation method. This means to take a series of quick and shallow breaths. The process can help disrupt the hiccup reflex, resulting in getting rid of the hiccups.
Breathe into a paper bag
It may sound funny, but inhaling and exhaling into a paper bag for a brief duration could actually elevate the levels of carbon dioxide in your blood. Such a process could aid in halting hiccups, which means that you just have to give it a try if anything else fails. To do this, all you need to do is position the opening of a paper bag over both your nose and mouth and then take several breaths in and out while inside the bag.
We should all remember that each and every organism is unique in its own way, which means that if a method of getting rid of hiccups works for your friend or relative, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it will work for you as well. Feel free to try each one of the methods exposed above until one of them gets you rid of those annoying hiccups.