28 Simple Yet Beneficial Home Remedies For Hiccups

By Jenny Smith 

Hiccups occur for no obvious reason and it is very common to get hiccups every now and then so there is no need to get alarmed when you get one. Usually, hiccups end in just a few minutes without any treatment. However, if the hiccups become prolonged, it can become a serious medical issue and treatment might be needed.

It is a known fact that prolonged hiccups affect men more than they affect women. When these hiccups last for more than a month, they are called intractable. There is no known cause for hiccups but some of the below mentioned instances are said to be associated with starting g hiccups very often:

• Eating food too quickly or having too much food
• After consumption of fizzy drinks, spicy food or alcoholic beverages
• When there is gas in the stomach and it presses against the diaphragm
• Any disorder or disease that irritates that diaphragm controlling nerves
• Brain tumors and strokes which involve the brain stem and other chronic disorders have also been known to cause hiccups
• Psychological conditions like excitement, stress, grief and anxiety

Hiccups are normally short lived but the prolonged ones must be treated right away because they can lead to problems like insomnia, depression, weight loss, communication problems and delay in post-surgical wound healing. For treatment you can get a lot of diagnostic tests done and use medicines. But an easier way out initially at least is to use home remedies to cure hiccups. Some of them are mentioned below:
28 Top Home Remedies for Curing Hiccups

28. Mint Beverage

This is probably the best home remedy for mint beverage lovers like myself. By having a mint beverage not only will you hiccups vanish but you will also get to enjoy a refreshing drink. Make a beverage out of fresh mint leaves, squeeze a lemon in it, cold water and a pinch of salt. Drinking this will calm your diaphragm thus stopping your hiccups. Cool right? I agree!

27. Black Pepper

Black pepper is a very commonly used herb which is used to treat hiccups.

• Take a small quantity of black pepper powder and inhale it. This will obviously result in you sneezing which is a fierce movement of the respiratory tract. And this movement will bring an end to your non-stop hiccups.

26. Crushed Ice

Sucking on crushed immediately stops the hiccups. The coldness will divert your mind of the hiccups since your concentration will be on focusing on sucking the cold ice. And that will stop your hiccups right away. Putting an ice bag under on the diaphragm below the rib cage will also stop your hiccups.

25. Yogurt And Salt Mixture

Take one cup of yogurt

• Add a teaspoon of salt in it
• Mix it well until the salt dissolves in the yogurt completely.
• Then eat the yogurt but very slowly because eating quickly will increase your hiccups instead of stopping them.

The yogurt mixed with salt will help stop hiccups.

24. Ginger

Even though it tastes bad, but ginger is known to be very effective in stopping hiccups.
Quick link = Health benefits of ginger

• Just take a small piece of ginger and peel it.
• Chew on the peeled ginger very slowly to stop your hiccups.

23. Sugar

Take a teaspoon of sugar in our mouth

• Let it dissolve in your mouth without chewing it

This home remedy is especially effective for children and babies who are not able to follow instructions on the breathing patterns. Swallowing sugar will stimulate the vagus nerve and the hiccups will stop.

22. Cardamom Powder And Water

Cardamom powder is known to be very effective home remedy for the treatment of hiccups.

• Let one and a half cup of water boil
• Add freshly ground cardamom powder to the boiling water
• When the liquid gets a little cold, strain it and drink.

This home remedy will help the diaphragm muscles to relax and will stop your hiccups.

21. Peanut Butter

People who love peanut butter listen up! Peanut butter is an amazing remedy to cure non-stop hiccups.

• When it is chewed and you try to get it off your teeth and tongue, the breathing patterns are disturbed and it helps stop the hiccups.
• If required, drink a glass of water.

This is especially a good cure for children because the other things might not taste good so they would throw tantrums in taking them. Since most of the kids love peanut butter, this would be a great remedy for them and parents wouldn’t have to run after their children to take those other bad tasting remedies to cure hiccups.

“It is a known fact that Hiccups are extremely annoying whenever they start. And the bad part is that people never know about these remedies. They just kept on bearing the hiccups till they would end themselves and did nothing to stop them. However, this article proves that this is not case at all. There are many home remedies that can help rid of hiccups and the ones mentioned in this article are tried and tested ones. So guys don’t wait till the hiccups end themselves because they get extremely annoying and everyone knows that. These suggested home remedies are not even hard to do. They are extremely simple and not consuming at all. They are fast and very effective. So try them and I can guarantee that you guys will not be disappointed at all.”

20. Hold Your Breath

This next one is what we have been hearing since we were kids.

• When hiccups start, hold your breath for as long as you can not letting any air out.
• Then exhale very gently.
• Keep repeating this a few times and your hiccups will be gone.

19. Water And Honey Or Sugar

Take a glass of warm water,

• Add one teaspoon of honey or sugar
• Put it on the back of your tongue and then swallow it.

This will stop your hiccups.

18. Warm Water

Take 10-11 quick sips from a glass of warm water. You may even gargle water. This will quiet the nerves. When water is being gulped down, the esophagus’s rhythmic contractions supersede the spasms of the diaphragm.

17. Vinegar

Cider vinegar has a really bad taste and it feels torture on the taste buds. But people it is a quick cure for continuous hiccups. So if you can bear the torture on your taste buds, try this method and it will definitely work in just a few minutes. Another method involving vinegar is suckling on a dill pickle. This is also known to be very quick cure to relive yourself of hiccups.

16. Pure Ghee And Mustard Seeds

Take half teaspoon of pure ghee

• Add half teaspoon of mustard seeds in it.
• Mix well and then swallow this mixture. This should reduce your hiccups.

15. Ice Cream

Another good hiccup home remedy especially for children who irritate their parents and are not willing to take the other things because most of them taste really bad. Parents listen up! Just give your child one scoop of ice cream and their hiccups will disappear. The coldness of the ice cream and the slow swallowing and best of all amazing distraction will all add up and calm the diaphragm thus stopping the hiccups. Amazing right? This one is my favorite too: D

14. Stand Against The Wall

If you can take the help of your partner, stand against the wall.

• Tell your partner to place their fist very lightly in the soft area right under your breast bone.
• Take a few deep breaths and remember to exhale completely in the last breath.
• Tell your partner to then press gently but firmly to help eject air from your lungs.

This process will help stop your hiccups.

13. Passionate Kiss

This one is quite interesting. If your partner is around you when your hiccups start, grab them and kiss them passionately. This has known to work most of the times. And well even if it doesn’t no harm done right?

12. Taste Something Sour

A surprise of something sour on your tongue will definitely work to stop your hiccups. The easiest way is to cut a slice of lemon and sucking on it. It might be a little uncomfortable because it will be sour but it will help to stop your hiccups for sure.
Quick link = Benefits of lemon water

11. Plug You Ears

Stick your fingers in your ears for about 25-30 seconds. You can even press the soft area behind your earlobes just under the base of your skull. This action will send a relax signal through the nerve called vagus which connects to our diaphragm.

10. Stick Your Tongue Out

This one is actually very funny right? Well funny yes, but it does work in stopping your hiccups. This exercise is usually done by actors and singer because it stimulates the opening between the vocal cords. Breathing becomes smoothly stopping the spasms that are causing the hiccups.

9. Block Your Ears And Drink Water

Stick your fingers in your ears and drink water at the same time.

• You can use a straw since both your hands will be occupied plugging your ears.

You are getting the benefits of steady swallowing and also pressing on the vagus nerve. Both will help to control and eventually stop your hiccups.

8. Bag Your Hiccups

Another one that sounds funny right? Well basically breathing into a paper bag is believed to be the same as holding your breath back. This will increase level of carbon dioxide in your blood and make your diaphragm contract more deeply than normal which will bring in more amount of oxygen. This will stop the spasms that are causing the hiccups in just a few minutes. However, stop immediately if you feel light-headed.

7. Take A Few Drops Of Hot Sauce

Some people just love hot sauce. They put it onto everything they possibly can because they love its flavor and taste. For those people, this remedy will be something good. This will work most likely because the burn and the heat will cause enough distraction for your body to focus on the burn instead of the hiccups. And so they will stop automatically in just a few minutes.

6. Chocolate

When hiccups start, have a teaspoon of powdered chocolate drink mix like Ovaltine, Cadbury drinking chocolate or cocoa.

• Have the entire spoon of powder at one time.
• Swallowing the entire spoon will not be easy and therefore when you concentrate on it rather than your hiccups, they will automatically stop.

This will probably be the best remedy for everyone because almost everyone loves chocolate. Including me J

5. Dill Seeds

Chewing a teaspoon full of dill seeds will cure your hiccups very quickly. This will definitely work because swallowing the dill seeds will stimulate the vagus nerves to put a stop to your hiccups. The best part about this particular home remedy that it is very simple and it tastes pleasant too unlike many others which are very bad in taste and therefore becomes difficult to eat take them.

4. Stretch

   Procedure

• Stand straight with both your feet hip-width apart.
• Lock the thumb of one hand in the palm of the other hand with finger tips outstretched.
• Next you should lift your chin and look up and stretch your arms above your head as if you are reaching for the sky.
• Your abs should be pulsed in next as if you are trying to let your trousers fall off your hips. (Yeah I know sounds funny: P) and then you breathe deeply a few times.

This will stop your hiccups immediately. It may actually prompt yawning too.

3. Bite A Pencil And Drink Water

This one is a funny one again.

• Okay so you take a pencil between your teeth in a way that it is sitting horizontally between your teeth. Here comes the tricky part.
• While the pencil is in your mouth, drink a glass of water.

Yes it is easy to say it than doing it. But you guys try it out. Drink water as much as you can while the pencil is still between your teeth. A few sips will also work.

2. Drink Upside Down

Having a glass of very cold water shocks your body and stops the hiccups. But this home remedy can be made much more effective if you drink water upside down.

• You fill a glass with very cold water
• Then you bend down at your waist and then put your head down.
• Drink water from the opposite side of the glass unlike the normal way.

If the hiccups don’t stop, you repeat the process and drink some more water upside down.

1. Sing Loudly And Laugh Loudly

Singing and laughing loudly will stop your hiccups very quickly. This is the quickest and the simplest method. Singing will unconsciously control your breathing and help rid of the hiccups very quickly.
For babies, the following can be done if the other methods mentioned above can’t be done.

• Patting their backs is the simplest way of curing hiccups. Other than this,
• Gripe water can also be given to babies. In case of infants, only 2.5ml of gripe water should be given and is more than enough to stop hiccups.
• If the baby is a little old meaning they can take solids, a teaspoon of sugar can also be given which will distract the nerves stopping the diaphragm from contracting and will eventually stop the hiccups.
• You should also make sure that the feeding bottle of your child does not have a big hole since that would lead to drinking more liquid very quickly which might be the reason for them getting hiccups.

Make sure you check all these things so chance of your baby getting hiccups frequently reduces as much as possible.

Do’s

• Drink lots of water on regular intervals.
• Give gripe water to babies since hiccups are very common and frequent in babies. It will help stop the hiccups.
• Rub the person’s back who is having hiccups in a waist to shoulder direction. This is for babies and adults both.

Don’ts

• Don’t eat too quickly.
• Don’t eat too much at one time.
• Do not keep on trying these remedies if hiccups don’t stop. Consult a doctor if the hiccups are persistent because it can be a serious issue as well.