Attack of the Killer Hiccups

[jethrien]

I currently have a horrendous case of hiccups. Nothing is working - not water, diaphragm exercises, sugar, nothing. And it's making me cough - and everytime I cough, I hiccup again. My coworkers can hear me though a glass wall and are laughing at me. It's really, really awful.

Comments

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

I'm confused: the first thing they say (breathing into a bag), will increase CO2 and blood acidity. And it seems to suggest that can help. And then they say that hyperventilation, which decreases CO2 and blood acidity, also helps. So which is it?

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

The answer is that no one actually knows what starts hiccups in the first place, so no one actually knows how to stop them. There's a bunch of ways that sometimes help, but nothing foolproof, and they don't actually know why the ones that sort of work do so.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Extradimensional hiccup elves, obviously. And if you do something silly enough that the elves fall over laughing, you stop hiccuping. That, or sometimes they get bored and go away.

And they looooove feiran.

[(Anonymous)]

No, no, hyperventilation into the bag. You'll start hyperventilating because of the increased CO2 levels, but you're doing it in an atmosphere of low oxygen.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

darnit, why can't this stupid browser ever remember my login consistently?