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Start > Doctors > Resource centre > Articles > Hiccups Part 2

I've heard people say that a hiccups sufferer should try holding his breath. And I've heard old wives tales which involve tickling the sufferer's nose.

One man in America, who had hiccupped over 100 million times without stopping, was sent thousands of suggestions to help him stop the habit.

Some of them from 'old wives'. Some of them from doctors.
None of them worked.

Then he tried praying to St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, and that did the trick.

Personally, I think the two remedies most likely to do the trick are to first try breathing in and out of a brown paper bag; and second, to try swallowing a teaspoonful of granulated sugar.

The raw sugar remedy probably works by scraping against the back of the throat and stimulating a nerve to suppress the hiccups.

Breathing in and out of a paper bag probably works because it alters the concentration of carbon dioxide breathed in.

Teacher: Michael
Many articles taken from 'A word with the doctor', by Dr. John Windsor.


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