If you’ve lived long enough, you know that one of the rare and frustrating complications you can get is the hiccup. There are some weird theories of why hiccups occur – you eat too fast, you trap air with your food; you breathed air into your tummy; the methane in your bowels is trying to escape through your stomach…. I’m sure you’ve heard many acclaimed cures like holding your breath till you turn blue in the face, drinking backwards from a glass of water, or breathing out all your air and jumping up and down. But when you tried them, they didn’t work, now did they.
A hiccup is caused by an involuntary contraction of the diaphragm – a dome-shaped muscle underneath your lungs. The diaphragm helps you breathe by flexing downwards to help your lungs pull in air, and bending upwards to help push air out. Sometimes the diaphragm gets irritated and goes out of rhythm with your lungs. Hiccups are your body’s way of trying to correct your breathing pattern. The problem is, the deeper you breathe, the stronger your hiccup gets. Your diaphragm is already out of rhythm, so breathing harder will only irritate it more. The secret to calming the diaphragm and realigning it is deliberate short intense breathing through the nose.
The next time you get hiccups, try this technique:
- Lie down on your bed or any flat surface.
- Close your mouth. (Breathe through your nose.)
- Put your hand on your belly.
- Take a short sharp breath in, and feel your tummy go up (Your diaphragm expands). Imagine you have the lung capacity of a sparrow, and breathe no more than that.
- Breathe out short and sharp, and feel your tummy go down (Your diaphragm contracts).
- Continue this action for 3-5 minutes. You will suddenly realize you have not been hiccupping.
A Frenchwoman taught me a technique, where you would put a tablespoon into a glass of water. You would allow the end of the spoon to touch your forehead, while you drink slowly from the glass. You will find you need to bend your head back to finish the glass of water. Here, the spoon helps put your head at the correct angle for proper breathing. I found this technique to work well, but I soon discovered that it’s not the water that was doing the magic, but the controlled breathing and head tilted back posture (as if you are looking up at the moon). So lie down and try the deliberate, short, intense breathing first. If it works, your diaphragm will realign, your hiccups will stop, and you may give out a couple of burps. Otherwise, get that glass of water and put that spoon in….
