Do you have any surefire secrets or cures?
6I know how to cure hiccups. My mother taught me when I was a kid to hold two fingers as close as I could to the sides of my wrist without touching until the hiccups stop. It only takes a few seconds. I think all it is, is focusing one’s attention to allow whatever’s causing the hiccups to subside. The only time I know of it not working was when they were caused by medication. I have taught this to many people over the years and never met one who knew about it.
My thinking is that if I, a person who never goes anywhere or does anything, know a useful thing like that, then everybody must know some surefire cure for something. And I’d like to know about it.
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I know all kinds of respiratory things, being an RT, and one of those is for an asthma attack.
If you notice you’re starting to have an attack and get tense, pull your shoulders down as far as you can…straight down…and hold them there. Breathe slowly. That relaxes the muscles in your neck and upper chest, and helps the airways open. You can try it even if you don’t have asthma and feel the difference (pull your shoulders way up, like you’re trying to touch your ears with them, and take a deep breath. Feel how tight your chest gets. Then pull them straight down and take a deep breath. You can feel the difference, but it’s much more pronounced if you’re in an asthma attack).
To your point about the hiccups…they are caused by a sudden contraction of the diaphragm. The cure is to increase your carbon dioxide for a short time, which is why breathing into a paper bag, or holding your breath, (depending on how severe they are) works. Your cure and your reasoning is correct, it changes your focus and your body fixes itself.
When we have patients on ventilators and they get the hiccups, we put a packet of sugar under their tongue (if they aren’t diabetic), and they go away. It’s a complicated explanation, but it works.
@Tadlem43 Wow, I bet that helps with anxiety attacks, too! I know when I’m stressed sometimes I realize my shoulders are way up and I always think I’m triggering something with my bad, protective posture. But I never thought about a physiological basis for it.
As someone who gets hiccups until they hurt, I’ve tried many cures, none work that well. Never heard of holding two fingers close to the sides of my wrist without touching @mossygreen .
@Tadlem43 does putting sugar under the tongue work better than just swallowing it?
@callow I learned a technique from a doctor’s kid in HS. It is pretty unpleasant, and there will be drool, so you want to be over a sink and have just washed your hands.
Take your thumb and place it on the roof of your mouth, the hard palate, and keep going back until you are on the soft palate. This is what is spasaming. Apply as much pressure as you can tolerate, and it will still try and hiccup a few times (this is when the drool starts coming down your wrist) but it will stop it after a few.
I only break this out after it has been a good while of the usual, focus on something else, hold your breath, etc. to no avail.
@KNmeh7 That sounds like I’d rather have the hiccups!
@callow @KNmeh7 Another unpleasant hiccup cure that always works for me: fill a glass with water (a smallish cup like an orange juice glass works best). Get a step stool and stand over the sink (or do it outside if weather permits). Lean way forward and drink out of the far side of the cup. Your head will be nearly inverted. After you are done coughing, sputtering, and nearly gagging; your hiccups will be gone.
@fibrs86 @KNmeh7 LOL I’ve tried that but with a straw.
@callow @fibrs86 @KNmeh7 What a bad description I wrote now that I see it in the morning! In case you actually want to try it, let me clarify: you bracket your wrist with one finger on either side (I use middle finger and thumb, don’t think it matters), and are trying to keep the fingers from touching either side. I showed this to a co-worker last week. When I told her I had a surefire hiccup cure, she asked, “Is is drinking a cup of water from the wrong side?” And I responded, “No, it’s much neater.” And she said, “I’m already sold.”
@callow @fibrs86 @KNmeh7 @mossygreen I get really aggressive and bad hiccups. Not often but when it does it’s absolutely awful. I either have to push on my diaphram right below my ribs or breathe in my hands or a paper bag to calm down. Going to try some of these next time this happens though. Hiccups are the 1 thing I really can’t deal with, broken arm? No problem. Sliced fingers, sure no biggie. Hiccups? Hell no.
@fibrs86 @KNmeh7 @mossygreen I feel for you @riskybryzness When I get hiccups they become painful because they last for 30 minutes or more. Once I was in a bar and everyone there had a surefire cure! I tried all of the ones mentioned here plus drink water while someone holds your ears, being startled, and more. None work on a regular basis.
Unfortunately my son takes after me. He has the most luck with a spoonful of sugar.
@callow Yes, because it goes into the blood stream more quickly, which is important for the signals being sent from the brain to the diaphragm.
Like I said, it’s a complicated process, but bottom line is it alters the pH. It also affects the vagus nerve that attaches to the diaphragm, which stops the brain from triggering the spasms.
I’ve never seen it fail to work, esp. in ventilator patients.
@Tadlem43 I’m going to try that sans the ventilator.
I know that as my kids got older, I got smarter. Learned that from my dad.
My grandma taught me her hiccup cure. Pour a tall glass of water and place a napkin over the top. Hold the napkin down as you drink through it. It takes extra effort and concentration to drink the water. Hiccups were always gone before I finished the glass!
@tinamarie1974 I’ve tried that. Also drinking upside-down (use a straw)
@callow @tinamarie1974
How do you drink upside down using a straw?
@Star2236 @tinamarie1974 Similar to the method @fibrs86 describes above. Put the straw in the far side of the cup. Bend all the way over and drink the water.
So what happens, if you accidentally touch your wrist with one or both of those fingers? Do you get double the rate of hiccups?
Or do you have to start over again, but use three fingers instead?
If so, what happens when you have failed at this five times by touching the wrist because your are both clumsy, non-coordinated, and still have the hiccups, which have now doubled five times so you are hiccupping at a rate 32 times faster (2^5) than when you started, but have no more fingers on that hand to hold over the wrist and it’s getting harder and harder to do anything because you are now in uncharted hiccup territory? <gasp>
Or can you just change hands and use the other wrist?
@Jackinga You trigger the heat death of the universe. Eventually.
When I get a migraine and there’s no ibuprofen available, I can pinch the soft tissue between my thumb and index finger on the same side of the headache. I have to apply A LOT of pressure, but it does provide some relief.
@zinimusprime
They actually sell little devices that pinch that area for you as homeopathic approach. I’ve never bought one but always been curious. Another point is your earlobe. Some people will clip clothes hangers there, or you dathe (not sure if I spelled that right). Its a piercing spot in your ear. Your foot also has a lot off pulse points you can look it up and find the spot for migraines. Look up acupuncture points and search the ones for migraines, you’ll be surprised to see how many different points there are.
@Star2236 @zinimusprime (acupressure…acupuncture uses needles)
@zinimusprime
for certain headaches there is another where the muscle on top of your shoulders insert. Firm pressure hurts like hell but when you remove the pressure the headache often goes with it.
Whenever any of our dogs get the hiccups, my wife quietly gets close to them and as loud and deep as she can goes “buh-ruh-ruh-ruh” like a big dog barking. They jump and no longer have the hiccups every time.
Cure for hiccups: flex your core muscles as hard as you can for 2-3 seconds. Works about 95% of the time.
I used to get awful hiccups that would last for hours. They felt like my airway was going to collapse. I haven’t had that issue in years now
I get hiccups when I eat something that is too spicy and am not acclimated to the intensity of the spice. I’ve found nothing that can make those go away, just have to wait it out. With more “conventional” hiccups, I typically swallow several gulps of air and force a nice belch or two out. Presto, no more hiccups!
Another trick I have for getting out water stuck in your ears. Turn your head so your ear points down and hop up down a few times to release the water.
Two cures for the hiccups, that require a second person:
The first: while the hiccuppee is unsuspecting, the cuter drops a spoon down the back of their shirt.
The second, a person cups their hands over the hiccuppee’s ears, sealing them off, while the hiccuppee drinks a glass of water straight down.
And an alleged cure for cat allergies, which was provided by a Native American friend, effective on kind of an ass, and may have just been the first dicking with the second: eating twelve oz of brown mustard in 8 hours.
If you need to convert miles to kilometers or vice versa, you can use the Fibonacci sequence to get a really good approximation since that conversion ratio - 1.609 - is really close to the golden ratio - 1.618.
ie 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…
the bigger the number, the better the approximation will be. so if any 'murican needs to figure out what 21 km is while they’re backpacking Europe (when we can), it’s a simple task to get to 13 miles. Well, simple for any in the lower 48 that can hold two digit numbers in their heads.
Just remember, it takes several Europeans to make up one American.