h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I learned this from a teacher in grade school. If someone in class had the hiccups, the teacher would ask them to hiccup once for the class. We would all stare at them, and they would try to produce one hiccup under pressure. This was usually impossible. After half a minute or so of this, the person's diaphram was back to its normal rhythm and the teacher would send them out for a drink of water, just in case.

I find this works, even for myself. When I find myself hiccuping, I just try to produce one *intentionally*, and they usually go away.

I have a friend who *can* hiccup intentionally, on cue. He uses this talent to great comic effect especially when something comes up missing:

Victim: "Hey, where are my keys?"
Wise Guy: *hic*

BTW "hiccough" is one of the most irrationally spelled words in English, considering its pronounciation, and that says a lot!

Another cure is

1. to inhale deeply and hold it;
2. take your thumbs and middle fingers to shut your ears and nose;
3. swallow three times "dry";
4. relase your fingers and exhale and return to normal breathing.

Hard - but it often works...

HP
»--.

I've heard that eating a couple of packets of sugar will also cure the hiccups

However, it's a method that's never worked for me.

My favorite cure:
1. Open your mouth as wide as possible
2. Stick out your tongue
3. Grasp your tongue with your right hand
4. Cross your eyes
5. Without uncrossing your eyes or letting go of your tongue, sing the Star-Spangled Banner(or I suppose for you Brits, God Save the Queen) as LOUDLY as you possibly can

Though I don't use this cure when *I* have the hiccups, it's great to recommend to a friend...

The 'cure' I always try first is a variation on the 'hold your breath' theme. Instead of sipping water while breathing deeply, I take a lot of small rapid sips while holding my breath. It often (but not always) works. Another tip someone once recommended is to breathe in and out from a paper bag. That is, hold a paper bag over your mouth and nose, and then breathe in and out normally. Apparently this works because you eventually inhale more carbon dioxide than usual - some people reckon too much oxygen / too little carbon dioxide can cause hiccoughs.

Make sure you use a paper bag and not a plastic one.

The best way I ever found was blocking the ears, and drinking water. Two people are normally needed for this!

One piece of advice Richard always gives me when I get hiccoughs is, 'Do something interesting'. If you do something that takes your mind off the hiccoughs, they'll go away. It does work, but if I'm having a bad attack it can be hard to find something that will take my mind off the problem.

Offering someone a nickel (this is five hundredths of a US dollar) to hiccup again combines the intentionality cure with the interest cure, and works for me for bouts of sneezing, too.

I have found that trying to produce the hiccup is probably the best way to alleviate them. Whenever a friend has acquired the hiccups I have always found it best to break out into your best drill instructor grunt and demand that the friend in question produce a single definitive hiccup to your face thereby proving he actually has them.
Be very loud.
Be exceptionally foul-mouthed..
Be outright brutal about it...

It is a very odd reverse psychological practice but if performed properly very effective. It has worked for me hundreds of times. My best advice is: Get a firm image of Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" and then unleash... works wonders.

The Darkness

I think I'll try that one... living in a military enviroment as I do I imagine it will work very well :-p

-RedFish

Think them away!

Explain to the hiccuper that in much the same way as they can control the muscles of their hand without fully understanding how the brain tells the body to work, so they can control the muscles which "manage" the hiccup.

Demonstrate by holding out your own hand, palm upwards and slowly clenching your fist.

Whenever I have hiccups I simply open and close my hand (slowly and thoughtfully) while thinking about doing the same thing for my "hiccup muscle" - I can't remember hiccupping more than once or twice for years, thanks to this method. I have also succesfully taught this method to several sceptic hiccupers

I recently discovered that it's impossible to cough and hiccup at the same time. I started to hiccup, then something triggered a fit of coughing. When the coughing subsided, the hiccups had stopped. I don't know if deliberately coughing several times would have the same effect, though.