Holding your breath while pinching your nose is supposed to stop hiccups, but does anything actually cure hiccups? (continued)
Richard Hind
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York, UK
What I find most effective is controlling the breath using what I call 鈥済olden ratio breathing鈥�. It is a form of breathing for relaxation in which you inhale for a count of five and exhale for a count of eight. You may hiccup once or twice as you start, but after half a dozen or so cycles, the hiccups melt away.
Nuala Lonie
Linlithgow, West Lothian, UK
The virtually infallible cure for hiccups is to try to hiccup. My friend has deployed this approach in his work as a teacher. He offered the afflicted child whatever coin came to hand from his trouser pocket if they could produce a hiccup in exchange.
On one occasion, discovering he had offered half a crown, which was a considerable sum back then, he decided to stick with the method and, fortunately for him, it still worked.
William Fairholm
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
An article I read years ago presented a magic word that would cure hiccups. I can鈥檛 recall the word, which was long and hard to pronounce, but the idea that a word can cure hiccups stuck in my mind. I figured that it must be the belief that a word can do this that is responsible for the effect.
Ever since, I have used sheer belief to cure my hiccups. In other words, my mind believes hiccups don鈥檛 matter and so they go away. My sister also successfully used this method for a while, but she lost faith and it stopped working.
Brian Horton
West Launceston, Tasmania, Australia
You can cure hiccups by inhaling increasing levels of CO2. This can be achieved by breathing into a paper bag, but this treatment should only be done under medical supervision.
Scientists studied this by enclosing people鈥檚 heads inside large plastic bags. They found that very persistent hiccups stopped when the levels of CO2 in the inspired air matched that in the expired air made no difference, suggesting it wasn鈥檛 a shortage of oxygen that stopped the hiccups. The method also didn鈥檛 work when a hole was made in the bag, indicating that the increased level of inhaled CO2 cured the hiccups.
Crispin Oates
Whiteley Bay, Tyne and Wear, UK
Except in one instance, my mother鈥檚 remedy of a teaspoon of sugar has always worked. The one exception was when I took ibuprofen on an empty stomach. This irritated my stomach lining and resulted in me having violent hiccups that lasted for a week!
Andrew McKenna
Queensland, Australia
If you want to know how to prevent hiccups occurring in the first place, the answer is to avoid things like alcohol, eating too quickly and consuming spicy food.
Basically, stay clear of pretty much anything that makes life worth living.
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