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Home Remedies
Hiccups are rarely serious, but they certainly can be annoying. There are dozens of remedies from holding your breath to drinking water from the far side of a glass. This is one we have been talking about since 1976. It's simple and easy. Q. My father has been plagued with hiccups at all hours of the day or night. His physician gave him samples of medications to try, but none worked. A friend of mine told me many years ago that a teaspoon of sugar stops hiccups. This is the only remedy that has worked. It is immediate and can last for hours. Sugar packets are easy to carry, too. A. We found this simple remedy published in the New England Journal of Medicine (Dec. 23, 1971) and have been recommending it ever since. Anyone who has prolonged hiccups, however, should have a diagnostic workup to rule out a serious medical condition.
Copyright (c) 1999 by Graedon Enterprises, Inc. From The People's Pharmacy Guide To Home And Herbal Remedies by Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin's Press, LLC.
Reader Comments
I have used sugar for hiccups for years and it almost always works, but it must be swallowed all at once.
My theory is that the effort required to swallow the dry sugar disrupts the spasms in the diaphram.
Posted by: B. Gray | May 2, 2007 9:24 AM
I'm 77 and have been using sugar
for hiccups for at least thirty
years and it has always worked for me and anyone I advised to try it.
Posted by: David L. Fuhrman Sr. | May 13, 2007 11:50 PM
You can try asking one of your family members to pat the back(on the spinal area from top to bottom and vice versa continuously for 2
minutes. When you feel like you have a hard time breathing that means whatever that sticks to the esophagus that cause the hiccup is going down(good sign). Do it until you can breath smoothly again.
Well it works for me, i don't guarantee that will work for you.
Posted by: KKK | May 17, 2007 4:09 AM
I have used sugar for hiccups for years. Friends laugh at me until they try it:)
It was a little hard at first to learn to swallow it before it melts, but that's the only way it works.
Posted by: Betty L. | May 18, 2007 11:05 AM
I just tried this, after following a google search, and it worked right away. Thanks :>
Posted by: kent | May 24, 2007 8:57 AM
After laughing at my wife for advising this, I tried it, and wow, it actually worked (I had been hiccuping all day)... Now I'm trying to figure out why this works!
Posted by: aaron | May 28, 2007 6:03 PM
Has anyone tried this with a baby? My newborn gets hiccups after every feeding. I know this is common w/babies and doesn't hurt her, but it does prevent her from falling back to sleep at night--which (consequently) also keeps us up. Will this work if I dissolve a little sugar in water in her bottle?
Posted by: ZS | June 3, 2007 12:02 PM
Someone betted me $10 during a bout of hiccups that I couldn't hiccup again. IT WORKS. I've said the same to three people since. The mixed feelings etched on their faces as normality immediately resumes is also fun to watch.
Posted by: Russ | June 4, 2007 7:20 AM