Hiccups

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle located at the bottom of the chest. It's the main muscle used for breathing. When you inhale, it pulls down to draw air into the lungs. When you exhale, the muscle pushes up to push air out of the lungs.

A hiccup is a spasm of the diaphragm muscle. This causes you to quickly inhale air, causing the "hiccup" sound. This may occur after eating or drinking too quickly or too much or having an irritation in the stomach or throat. It may also occur when feeling nervous or excited. Often hiccups seem to happen for no clear reason.

In most cases, hiccups are not serious. They last just a few minutes, and often go away without any treatment. There are many home remedies for treating hiccups and sometimes they work. These include:

• Holding your breath up to 10 seconds.

• Stimulating the vagus nerve in the back of your throat by:

  • Gently pressing or rubbing your eyeballs.

  • Bite into a lemon.

  • Pulling on your tongue or rubbing the back of your tongue with a finger (just short of gagging).

  • Sipping or gargling with very cold water.

  • Swallowing dry bread.

  • Swallowing granulated sugar (1 teaspoon). People who have diabetes should not use this home remedy.

• Breathing deeply into a paper bag.

• Pulling your knees to your chest and leaning forward while sitting up to 1 minute.

If the hiccups continue, medicine may be needed.

In rare cases, hiccups may last for days or weeks, but this is very unusual. When this occurs, it's often the sign of another medical problem. In these cases, tests may be done to help find the cause.