How to Get Rid of Hiccups

Hiccups are defined as the sudden, involuntary spasm of the diaphragm muscle under your lungs. When that happens, your vocal cords snap shut and make the hiccuping sound. 

Hiccups are actually the symptom of something else! You know you have them when your chest suddenly has a muscle contraction and you make the little *hic* sound. Sometimes, you might feel your chest or throat tighten with hiccups. 

Any number of things can cause your hiccups. The most common triggers include drinking soda, eating too much, or getting stressed out. Occasionally, there can be more scary causes like a tumor, laryngitis, or even a hair touching your eardrum. 

This is one of the more typical causes of hiccups. When you ingest food or drink too fast, air can get trapped under the diaphragm. To try and help, your body makes you hiccup to force the air out. 

Fizzy drinks cause your stomach to distend—sort of like an inflating balloon. This irritates the diaphragm and causes those annoying muscle spasms. Luckily, you can cut down on hiccups by cutting out carbonation.

Drinking anything too fast can cause hiccups, but alcohol is really bad about it because it promotes acid reflux. This irritates your insides and triggers hiccups. If you’re drinking beer or champagne, the carbonation only makes it worse. 

The main ingredient in spicy foods using peppers is capsaicin. While it’s quite tasty and can be used to treat nerve pain, it could also be causing your hiccups. Capsaicin bothers the diaphragm and esophagus, leading to those annoying hiccups. 

Smoking is bad for you no matter what. It can cause all sorts of bad diseases like cancer, and now you can add hiccups to that list. Smoking bothers the nerves that extend from the neck and chest, which results in the familiar muscle spasms that lead to hiccups. 

Gum can be a good way to get hunger cravings under control, calm yourself down, or even be a comforting habit (even if it’s gross). Did you know that chewing gum can also give you the hiccups? When you chew, you can swallow air and all of sudden you’re hiccupping. 

This is one of the more uncomfortable causes of hiccups and can give you symptoms that last for multiple days. Hiccups after surgery are caused by the breathing tube mildly injuring a nerve. Once this heals, the annoying condition will go away.  

If a medication can cause acid reflux then it can also cause hiccups. Common culprits for causing your hiccups are Valium, Xanax, and Ativan. You should talk to a doctor before stopping a medication, but if you think it’s causing you to have lasting hiccups it’s worth having the conversation. 

Just like spicy foods and carbonated drinks, eating foods with a very high fat content can cause your stomach to become swollen with pressure. It's best to avoid eating a big, greasy meal of french fries and burgers unless you want to get the hiccups.

Speaking of acid reflux, this is a painful and common cause of the dreaded hiccups. The lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is the entrance to your stomach. It normally closes as soon as food passes by. If it doesn’t close, stomach acid comes back up and the irritation can lead to hiccups. 

Also known as GI Diseases, these include Chron’s, Celiac, IBS, and Colitis. They’re basically disorders that disrupt the digestive system’s function. They can cause damage to the nerves around the diaphragm, leading to your hiccup problem. 

Diabetes, kidney disease, tumors, and meningitis are just a few of the diseases that can have hiccups as a symptom. All of these diseases cause irritation to nerves and muscles around the diaphragm and lead to the noisy spasms. The worst part is these hiccups can last for days or weeks. 

You might be surprised to find that anxiety, stress, and depression can lead to hiccups. When you disrupt your breathing cycle, you can open yourself up to hiccups. Especially when you’re stressed out and hyperventilating, the extra air you pull in while in distress is an easy way to cause the annoying condition. 

Much like how stress can lead to noisy spasms, getting too excited can bring them on, too! When you start jumping for joy and breathing differently than normal, air can get trapped inside and be forced to find a way out. 

Going from a hot room to a cold one, or vice versa, can also trigger hiccups. This is because the sudden temperature change shocks the nerve connecting the brain with the diaphragm. Luckily, hiccups caused by temperature change go away once your body is comfortable again. 

There is no magical cure-all for hiccups. Some of the cheesy-sounding home remedies will work for you while others won’t. If it works for you, it might not work for someone else. The trick is to relax your diaphragm, calm the nerves that might be irritated, and confuse the body by breaking up the hiccup’s cycle.  

This is one of the most popular home remedies for hiccups, partly because it’s fun to try and scare the daylights out of a good friend. If you don’t want to scare anyone, a good joke or a confusing question works, too. The idea behind it is the brain’s attention is taken away from the nerves and muscles causing hiccups, which stops them. 

Pulling on your tongue helps get rid of hiccups by stimulating the nerves and muscles in your throat. By pulling on the tip of your tongue once or twice, you’re activating a pressure point that can relax the diaphragm. 

Lemons can be a sour way to treat your unfortunate case of hiccups. You can add some salt to the lemon before you take a bite if you want, but the trick is to suck on the juices to shock your nerves into calming down. 

Water can be a handy tool when fighting hiccups. If you gargle a mouthful of ice-cold water for about 30 seconds, it will relax your throat muscles and nerves. Repeat this a few times to get the maximum benefit. 

Holding your breath can reset the breathing pattern and effectively end your hiccups. This is also free and requires no extra tools. Just get a big gulp of air and hold it for about 20 seconds. Breathe out slowly and enjoy your hiccup-free life!

A little-known trick to dealing with hiccups is to use smelling salts. These stimulate the vagus nerve, which goes from your brain to your stomach. This nerve can be the cause of your hiccups, so smelling salts might be exactly what you need to get rid of them.

Eating certain things can also help stimulate the vagus nerve. Sugar is a sweet way to treat this condition. All you need to do is put a pinch of sugar on your tongue, let it sit for about 10 seconds, and then swallow. 

A simple change in your breathing can relax a spasming diaphragm. A brown paper bag is a great way to alter your breathing. Get a paper bag (never use plastic), place it over your mouth and nose, and breathe in and out slowly to get rid of hiccups. 

Like with the paper bag method changing your breathing, a change in your posture can get rid of hiccups, too. For this home remedy, all you need to do is sit down, bring your knees to your chest, and hold them in place for two minutes. 

This is a tasty way to get rid of those nasty hiccups. You can also use honey, but the idea is to get a spoonful of the yummy treat and let it dissolve in your mouth for a little bit before swallowing. This helps stimulate the nerves that could be causing the hiccups. 

Go see a doctor! These are all home remedies that work for some people but not everyone. If your hiccups don’t go away, last for more than two days, or start to get painful then you should make an appointment with your doctor. Long-lasting hiccups can be a sign of stroke, multiple sclerosis, gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), or other more serious conditions.