cure for hiccups

There is no one definitive cure for hiccups and in most bouts they will be self limiting and will require no treatment at all. Several remedies, as a cure for hiccups are common in folklore and many have a physiological basis to explain their apparent success. Some examples of a cure for hiccups are: drinking from the wrong side of a glass; drinking ice cold water; drinking a fizzy drink through a straw; breath holding; breathing into a paper bag; or breathing in and out slowly and deeply as if going sleep have all been used as a cure for hiccups. Putting sugar under your tongue might work too; plus maybe the most famous cure for hiccups of them all - having someone jump out and scare you when you're not expecting it. There are various methods of a cure for hiccups, although not all of them work for everybody. Some people can be cured every time they have an attack using a particular method, while that method may never work on others as a cure for hiccups. In nearly all the cases of a cure for hiccups, they work by causing the diaphragm muscle to relax, usually by starving it of oxygen.

In more prolonged bouts, several drugs have been used as a cure for hiccups with good effect. Chlorpromazine is the most commonly used and is effective in 75-80% of cases. Haloperidol has also been used with some success. When all other therapies have failed, surgery can be undertaken. Microvascular decompression of the vagus nerve is very occasionally performed when all other therapies have failed. Surgical interruption of the phrenic nerve, which is crushed, causing the diaphragm to relax, has also been used for intractable cases; but the surgery itself carries a significant mortality and is a last resort procedure.