How to get rid of hiccups? You were reporting during a Zoom meeting with your boss when you started having hiccups. It happens when your vocal cords snap shut and muscle spasms, producing the hiccup sound. Usually, it resolves in a short while, and it rarely needs medical attention.
Here are home remedies based on Reader's Digest that works wonders to stop you from hiccuping.
Cover your mouth
Continue breathing normally while covering your nose and mouth. The excess carbon dioxide could help stop your hiccups.
Hold your breath
Similarly, holding your breath could cause a build-up of carbon dioxide to your lungs.
Add pressure to your hands
Using your thumb, try pressing your other hand's palm. You could also use your right thumb and forefinger to squeeze the ball of your left thumb. The distraction to your nervous system could help relieve hiccups.
Plug your ears
For 20 to 30 seconds, stick your fingers to your ears to help relax your diaphragm. You may also press the soft areas behind your earlobes that are below the base of the skull.
See also: How to Get Water out of Your Ear: Easy to Remember Dos and Don'ts
Stick out your tongue
Singers and actors stick out their tongues to stimulate their vocal cords. It helps them breathe smoothly and stops spasms that cause hiccups.
Breathe into a paper bag
According to Mayo Clinic, another way to increase the carbon dioxide level in your blood is by breathing through a paper bag slowly and deeply.
See also: How to Get Rid of Hiccups in a Newborn Baby [Easy Steps]
Eat a spoonful of sugar
A famous hiccup cure is by eating a spoonful of sugar. While there is no proof on this, many say that the sugar's graininess could slightly irritate your esophagus, causing your phrenic nerves to "reset" themselves. You could also take honey stirred in warm water.
Or intake something sour
Taking in a spoonful of vinegar could stop a hiccup. According to Best Health, sucking or biting on a lemon wedge is a hiccup remedy.
Drink water
Gulping water, about nine to ten quick sips in a row, could override spasms in your diaphragm.
Eat peanut butter
Having the same mechanism as gulping water, eating a big spoonful of peanut butter could make you chew to get it off your teeth and tongue. This way, you interrupt your swallowing and breathing patterns, so the hiccups stop.
Take powdered chocolate drink mix
Swallowing a spoonful of powdered chocolate drink mix could help cure your hiccups.
See also: How to Get Rid of Tonsil Stones: 6 Effective Ways Without Going to a Doctor
Do two strategies together
Try blocking your ears as you sip water. You could also stick your fingers into your ears while sipping through a straw. It is one of the most effective home remedies for hiccups.
Hug your knees
Blue Cross Blue Shield stated that by bringing your knees to your chest for two minutes, you help stop diaphragm spasms. It explained that it compresses your chest to relax.
Sip hot sauce
Heat and burn are both distracting enough to turn your body's focus from the hiccups to the burning feeling.
Chew up some dill
Chewing a teaspoon of dill seeds is one traditional way of getting rid of hiccups. The seeds stimulate the vagus nerve to stop the spasm.
Massage your neck
By rubbing or massaging your carotid arteries, found in your neck, you could stop your hiccups.
