Get the Hiccups
There are many causes for the hiccups, some unknown, and others known like the expansion of the stomach. Hiccups can be an uncomfortable and irritating sensation. The best way to avoid hiccups is by understanding all the ways known to cause hiccups. Sometimes they are just unavoidable.
Contents
Steps
Eating or Drinking
- Drink something fizzy. Sparkling water, soda, and other carbonated beverages can all cause hiccups. Drinking quickly might increase the odds when consuming this sort of beverage.
- Eat dry food without drinking. Eating something dry such as bread or crackers quickly without anything to drink might cause hiccups as well. The shift in liquid balance may disrupt your diaphragm.
- Eat spicy food. Eating food spicier than you're used to could irritate the nerves around your throat and stomach, which can cause hiccups.
- This doesn’t happen to everyone.
Eating food spicier than you can handle can also upset your stomach.
- Alternate your beverage's temperature. Sudden temperature changes in the stomach sometimes cause hiccups. This can happen if you drink a hot drink, then follow it with an icy one.
- Permanent tooth damage is a possibility as the enamel on your tooth can fracture. Do not make a habit of this activity, and never try it if you have porcelain tooth implants, or if your teeth feel painful or sensitive to heat or cold.
The same results will work with hot and cold foods eaten in rapid succession.
- Drink excessive amounts of alcohol. Being intoxicated is classically linked to having hiccups. The older cartoons would often portray a drunk character fumbling over words with hiccups sprouting out.
Getting Hiccups from Other Ways
- Swallow a large mouthful of air. Suck in a mouthful of air, close your mouth, and swallow. This is one of the only methods successfully used by a research team, who believe that hiccups might be a reaction to dislodge large pieces of food from the esophagus.
- You could simulate this by chewing and swallowing a moderately large mouthful of bread. Trying this with other foods, especially large amounts, is not recommended, due to the risk of choking.
- Trying this too many times is likely to lead to an unpleasant, bloated sensation.
- Force yourself to burp. Some people who burp on command repeatedly will induce a hiccuping fit.The same effect can be achieved by sucking in air rapidly to the back of your throat. Avoid overstimulating your glottis, or the flap at the back of your throat, by closing and reopening it rapidly.
- Your glottis is active when you say "uh oh." Be aware of straining it from burping or screaming as a form of singing. Understanding where your glottis is and when it is stimulated will reduce your chances of straining it.
This is the same motion that occurs when you hiccup, so stimulating it intentionally may trigger hiccups.
- Take a shower with an abrupt temperature change. Sudden temperature changes may stimulate certain nerves that can trigger a hiccuping session.
- Temperature change can also cause hives or swollen skin.
It is the same technique mentioned earlier about eating or drinking foods that contrast in temperature.
- Trigger sudden emotions. Nervousness and excitement are likely emotions that will trigger hiccups. This is probably the least reliable method since most people hiccup only occasionally despite daily mood shifts. Still, if there is a movie, video game, sport, or other activity that makes you excited, scared, or nervous, be aware that it may induce the hiccups.
Linking Hiccups to Medical Causes
- Hiccup from bowel issues. Many types of gastrointestinal conditions like inflammatory bowel disease, a bowel obstruction, or gastro-esophageal reflux disease can cause hiccups. These types of diseases can be caused by a lack of fiber, lack of exercise, travel, consuming excess dairy, stress, and pregnancy.
- Start hiccuping from a respiratory condition. These conditions include pleurisy, pneumonia, and asthma. Strain on the respiratory system affects your diaphragm which causes hiccups.
- Genetics
- Inhaling toxic agents (cigarettes, oil fumes, etc.)
- Accidents
Respiratory conditions can stem from multiple sources like:
- Develop hiccups from the brain. Traumatic brain injuries, brain tumors, and strokes can all cause hiccups. Hiccups can even arise from the internal, psychological brain due to grief, excitement, anxiety, stress, hysterical behavior, and shock.
- While psychogenic hiccups are rare, they occur in both children and adults.
Warnings
- Many of these techniques can cause unpleasant sensations if attempted repeatedly. You may not wish to try them if you have an upset stomach, suffer from acid reflux, or feel ill.
Related Articles
Sources and Citations
- ↑ http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hiccups/basics/causes/con-20031471
- http://gut.bmj.com/content/41/5/590.full
- ↑ http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/spring-2009/why-do-we-hiccup
- http://kidshealth.org/kid/talk/qa/hiccup.html
- http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gastrointestinal-disorders/symptoms-of-gi-disorders/hiccups
- https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases_conditions/hic_gastrointestinal_disorders
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3555588/
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4140000/