Chocalate & Hiccups?

[Soulmanure]

This is a bit random, but I'm curious as to what y'all think. I get hiccups from time to time, as probably most people do, and I've tried all the remedies I've heard--scare tactics, holding the breath, spoons of straight sugar, etc.

I was having a cigar with a friend a while back, and I got the hiccups (inhaling too hard, perhaps). He mentioned a cousin of his who had a horrid case of the hiccups--went on for months, I believe. Long story short, my friend tells me that he knew the cure--chocolate. I figured it was another old wives' tale, but he grabbed a piece of chocolate, I ate it, and gone! It's worked ever since, and I just cured a friend of mine the other night.

Anyone else heard of this?

[Deano]

Nope but I'll remember it - any excuse to resort to chocolate is good enough for me!

[monkey66]

Never heard of it (will defiantly try though!) but I do know a cure that works for me, don't know if I can explain it sufficiently but will try.

What you need to do is breath in, and then pressurise your mouth without breathing out (so your cheeks billow up). You then need to hold this (calmly) for as long as you can (60 seconds is good). You can breath out a little through your nose to relieve this discomfort as long as you maintain a pressure in the mouth. Sometimes it can take two or three goes but it nearly always works. NB - probably not a good idea with a mouth-full of smoke

I think hiccups are all about a little flap of skin that flips the wrong way and what one is trying to do is flip it back (hense a shock working because it causes an involuntary muscle spasm). I think the method I described above stretches the muscle persuading the flap to flip.

[cj121]

Never heard of the chocolate fix Soulman, but I think you'll find that the hiccups you encountered were due to the Vitamin N in the cigar. I went through a series of hiccups last year when smoking pokey sticks and read up that one side effect of nicotine is the common hiccup

It still happens from time to time, especially during those really tasty cigars that you take down to near nub. However, next time, I'm now prepared

[Lee Nub]

I remember the poor guy on the one show who had hiccups for 2 years, turned out to be a brain tumour that was causing it

[tippexx]

Never heard of that Soul. But chocolate and cigars do compliment one another, so Willy's 74% is always on my Waitrose list .... and I never get hiccups!

[Habana-Habanos]

It is funny, my friend has this every day, she would just start randomly hicupping. To be honest I think the chocolate would be psychological and perhaps you changed your breathing pattern when you ate.

When I get hiccups I hold my breath for 10 seconds and it goes.. Probably another psychological thing.

[Soulmanure]

It is funny, my friend has this every day, she would just start randomly hicupping. To be honest I think the chocolate would be psychological and perhaps you changed your breathing pattern when you ate.

It's totally possible, though I wonder why that wouldn't be true for the spoon-o-sugar cure. Either way, I suggest you try it. There's an odd feeling of transformation in the throat as the chocolate goes down.

In any case, I'll take a chocolate medicine/placebo any day!

[satch]

I bloody HATE hiccups so next time I'll give it a go.
I find I get them the most when I walk out the pub into fresh air.
I don't have to pissed either which is doubly annoying.

[goose165]

i agree with deano,that will be a good excuse then

[Pipe Dude]

I have a 100% cure.....

Stick your index fingers deep in your ears
Have someone feed you a glass of water
Drink as much water as you can - if you need to come up for air, waggle your free fingers
Remove fingers from ears.

I don't know why it works, but it really does.