5 ways to dodge the hiccup attack

As I wrote in my last post, I had a hiccup attack a few days ago. It made me think about my health condition, because there was posted on the web a vast list of diseases and health condition problems and I got scared and I have tried to get rid of the hiccup.

Theoretically, it sounded very well, but it got a bit tricky when I began to fight against this annoying, but still funny, at least for the others, sound. I tried numerous methods to stop the hiccup, some heard from my friends, some seen on the web, but there was at least one good thing I have learned, and that is that there aren’t any universal methods.

There are few people that react in the same manner to the same method of hiccup annihilation. Our bodies are different, and each person has a perfect way to stop a hiccup attack. It took me a while to find mine. Here is what I have tried:

1. Eat a slice of lemon. The lemon will create a strange sensation that the body can’t understand, and the acid from the lemon will make your stomach reduce its size, making the diaphragm relax. It should stop the hiccup in most of the cases, even for a short while.

2. Crouch and hold your breath as long as you can. Although it can cause dizziness and you can pass out if you push yourself to the limit, still it is a good way to relax the diaphragm and suppress the hiccups.

3. Drink water. This one has a lot of variables, because there are many techniques to drink. You can drink in repeatedly small sips, or drink when you feel like hiccup, or drink slowly but continuous.

4. Eat a spoon of sugar. This method has something to do with the action of sugar upon the stomach, and it also give a boost of energy to the body cells, helping them to carry away faster the surplus of carbon dioxide that causes the hiccup.

5. Apply to your both ear lobes pressure with your thumb and index together for approximately 40 seconds. This is the most surprising tip regarding the hiccup that I ever heard and it has nothing to do with breathing in a certain way or eating certain things, it is all about pressure points. With a background in acupuncture, I think this can be the most efficient advice.

Related posts:

• The hiccup terror
• Stop biting your nails by identifying and eliminating the stress factor
• How to work and live a healthy life
  

So how well did you do against the hiccups? Do you know others ways to lose the hiccups?

Written by: Liviu Moldovan

Read More...

The hiccup terror

Today I had an attack of hiccup and I can say it was the worst experience I ever had. It lasted for almost 8 hours, with a few interruptions of course, and it was driving me crazy. I wasn’t able do work properly, I could not have a conversation without making everyone around me laugh, and I was starting to be worried about my health state.

So, the first thing that I have done when I got at home, it was to organize a brainstorming trough my friends for any advices about ways to get rid of the hiccup, and I even tried to find out the possible health issues that could have caused the hiccups.

For those of you that don’t know what hiccup really is, the hiccup is a sharp noise caused by a sudden spasm of the diaphragm, commonly cause by digestive disorder.
Whenever you experience an attack of hiccup, I advise you to stay away from medical explanation and try not to read about the problems that could have caused it.

If you ignore my advice, you will find a long and scary list with diseases and other factors that could have cause the hiccup, like this one: abdominal disease–gastric distension, GI hemorrhage, bowel obstruction, esophagospasm, or inflammation including hepatitis, peritonitis, gastritis, enteritis, appendicitis, pancreatitis, abrupt temperature change, alcohol, inferior wall MI, irritation of tympanic membrane, metabolic derangements–azotemia, hyponatremia, uremia, diaphragmatic irritants, diseases of chest wall, lung, and heart–mediastinitis, tumors, aortic aneurysms, subphrenic abcesses, pericarditis, foreign bodies, excess smoking, excitement or stress, toxins, drugs–general anesthesia, barbiturates, diazepam, α-methyldopa, tumors, pneumonia, herpes zoster, central and peripheral nervous system disease–encephalitis, tumors, meningitis, brainstem infarcts, phrenic nerve compression, cervical cord lesions.

When you hiccup the next time, you will surely panic and think that you are having an heart attack if you are taking that list as granted. I don’t say you should not, but actually, the hiccup means that there is a slight increase of carbon dioxide in the blood, and your body is trying to get more oxygen. So there is no need to panic, in most of the times, at least.

I want that people who read this post will share with us their worst hiccup experience, and I promise that I will soon make a list of ways to get rid of the hiccup terror. At the moment I am testing some of them, and maybe I will find one that work.

Related posts:

• 5 ways to dodge the hiccup attack
• Stop biting your nails by identifying and eliminating the stress factor
• How to work and live a healthy life

Written by: Liviu Moldovan

Read More...