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Comment by sho | Hacker News Reader

> This is similar to sucking on a straw

Totally random and off topic, but since it took me 40 years to learn the only 100% effective way to get rid of hiccups, this is it.

You need to create an extended period of negative pressure in your oesophagus, to de-activate the vagus nerve, or whatever it's called. The reliable way to do this is to have a bottle of water and a straw. Plug your ears if possible - helps but it's not strictly necessary. Crimp the straw somewhat with your teeth. Now spend 20 or 30 seconds slowly, but with a high pressure, sucking water through that straw and swallowing it. Remember, your goal is negative pressure in the oesophagus for an extended period.

It is the only reliable method and for some reason is almost completely unknown. Well, now you know!

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Not sure where i read this one, but it's worked out great for me (someone who seems to get hiccups a lot).

    - breath in through your nose till you fill with air
    - hold your breath for 10 seconds
    - try to breath in again (will be a very small breath)
    - hold for 10s
    - try to breath in again (will be even less)
    - hold for 10s
    - try to breath in again (almost nothing)
    - hold for 10s
    - breath out

I just start holding my breath a bit before a new hiccup arrives and swallow a couple of times, it usually does the trick.

Yup this, and even without swallowing. Hold that breath, press down hard.

Or, just try holding your breath for 30-45 seconds. I'm betting you've discovered a round-about way to achieve the same mechanism of action (raising level of CO2 in your blood). https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140127-do-hiccup-remedi...

For that method, I have to clench my abs as hard as I physically can, and usually a hiccup will still force its way through.

It does work, but it's not easy and usually take 5+ attempt to stifle the one that forces through.

My (somewhat weird) roundabout way is to take a deep breath in and exhale slowly while imagining myself at a time (like say 5 minutes ago) when I did not have hiccups, but it requires concentration (usually 5-10 seconds).

The method I use has a medical name, but I can't remember it unfortunately (it's actually used for heart palpitations, but I found that it worked just as great for hiccups). It's basically lying on your back while holding your breath and applying pressure down on your lungs from both your chest/throat.

In my 20's I got a lot of hiccups, usually because I was drinking and talking at the same time; but due to the placebo effect eventually I would only need to lie on my back for 1-3 seconds, pretend to hold my breath and then I could get back up and it'd be cured.

Same ultimate solution, but no need for any apparatus - lung packing. I learned this incidentally while I was into freediving as a teen.

Just take the deepest breath that you can, and then use your tongue and throat to pack more air into your lungs until you feel fit to burst - it may take 20-30 packs. Hold it for ten seconds, then slowly exhale - if you’ve done it right you’ll feel like a deflating air mattress. Hiccups will be gone. If they aren’t, you didn’t pack enough.

> Crimp the straw somewhat with your teeth

Damnit. Can't do that with the glass and metal straws we have now...

> It is the only reliable method and for some reason is almost completely unknown. Well, now you know!

I'm going to patent a straw with a tiny hole on one end and sell it as an anti-hiccup-device.

Do you also know of a way to trigger hiccups so I can test my anti-hiccup-device?

Pumpkin seeds do it for me. There's something about the fiber in the shell that irritates the throat after a while. Eat enough and I'll get hiccups for hours.

I’m afraid that ship has sailed.. https://hiccaway.com/

I solve hiccups by drinking water. It is an instantaneous solution for me.

I also have to say that sucking on a straw is a terrible analogy for pumps because people think they are pulling the liquid when they are pushing it up the straw.

> sucking on a straw is a terrible analogy for pumps because people think they are pulling the liquid when they are pushing it up the straw

How is lowering pressure by sucking on a straw a bad analogy for lowering pressure inside a mechanical pump?

Drinking a full glass of water very quickly has never failed for me, perhaps it does something similar to your method?

having small amount of solid sugar, let it mix with saliva, let it go down on throat, and then drink some water -- this has never ever ever failed me!

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