How to Cure the Hiccups by Timing Your Breath

Many cures for hiccups relate to breathing. This is good to know because breathing is an important part of regulating the diaphragm.

Another breathing exercise that is known to cure the hiccups is by counting your hiccups and timing your breathing.

To do this follow the steps outlined below.

Hiccups tend to happen at certain intervals. In a previous article I mentioned “The term “hiccup” is also used to describe a small and unrepeated aberration in an otherwise consistent pattern.”

This was referring to the interruption of normal breathing. While a hiccup is an aberration in your normal breathing cycle, the hiccup itself tends to have a pattern or consistency in some instances.

If this is the case see if you can determine the pattern to your hiccups.

How to Cure Hiccups by Breaking their Pattern

1. First, start by counting right after you have a hiccup. One, Two, Three, Four… See when your next hiccup occurs.
2. Once the hiccup occurs begin counting again. See if the timing is the same between hiccups. For our example lets say the hiccup is occurring every 4 seconds.
3. Once we have distinguished this pattern see if you can interrupt the pattern of hiccups.
4. Count to four again, and right as the hiccup is about to happen hold your breath.
5. After several attempts at trying to break up the pattern of hiccups you should find that your hiccups are cured.

If they are not there are many other great articles on this site that focus on how to cure the hiccups. Keep trying different things and be patient. Sometimes it can take a while to cure a serious bout of hiccups.

Home Remedies to Cure Hiccups Work in Normal Cases

The doctor also recommended a “home remedy” to try in the meantime (while we went to pickup the prescription.). I was a breathing exercise he wanted me to try in an effort to readjust my diaphragm.

He had obviously searched online while I was in Radiology because the method he wanted me to try was one I had come across on another website that had a lot of positive feedback from people who had tried it. This method can be found here.

30 Second Cure to Hiccups

Once we picked up the prescriptions we went home. As soon as I walked in the door I took the Acid Blocker and Thorazine. I had been doing the breathing exercise on the way home to try and help with my hiccups.

I had actually tried it a day or two before with very little luck. I think based on the feedback the method probably works great in “common” cases of hiccups but due to the extent of my hiccups it did very little to help me.

Within about 30 minutes of taking the Chlorpromazine I started feeling a little “sleepy” and before I knew it I was out cold. The thing about Thorazine is when it knocks you out; it knocks you out but good. I feel asleep at about 11:00pm and slept until about 5:00pm the next day.

Back to Urgent Care for Treatment for my Hiccups

We arrived at Urgent Care once again about 1 hour prior to closing. I was in so much discomfort and pain that I was desperate at this point.

We met with a nurse who took down our information again and went through the normal routine and then met with our doctor. The doctor has an extremely heavy accent and was almost impossible to understand. He obviously hadn’t been in the US long.

The good thing about dealing with a foreign doctor is he was actually concerned about fixing my problem as opposed to how many patients he could push out the door in one day.

He asked me a series of questions about my hiccups and how I was feeling in addition to what I was experiencing and allowed me to go into great detail about what was wrong. He actually listened to me; instead of cutting me off and assuming he had already solved the problem.

After hearing about my previous two visits to the ER and Urgent Care the day before he ruled out many of the common things he was going to try. Instead he said that at this point it would be best if I was given X-Rays to make sure that everything in my chest looked good.

The X-Ray could potentially pick up any problems with a damaged Frenetic Nerve or Diaphragm.

Nausea Medicine & Drugs Do Not Cure the Hiccups

Once again it seems the doctor chose to hear we he wanted to hear, and I was prescribed yet another medication for nausea and stomach problems. Neither of which were an accurate description of what was happening to me.

As I mentioned above it was more like chocking and gagging as a result of something stuck in my throat, rather than vomiting due to nausea. In my mind this was surely being caused by the continuous Acid Reflux I was experiencing.

I still took the Metoclopramide for a full 24 hours hoping for anything that would help at this point. It had now been 6 days and I still had the hiccups, and I was close to my wits end.

Five Days of Hiccups & a Decision about a Hospital Checkup

Sunday was pretty unproductive. My hiccups still hadn’t gone away and I was suffering from severe chest pains and Acid Reflux throughout the day.

That night was a repeat of Friday night, although this time I decided to not go to the ER. I just didn’t want to be poked full of needles again in some uncomfortable place that wasn’t going to help my problem.

I opted for staying home instead which lead to a long night of wrenching and choking from about 9pm until 5am the next morning. I was so worn down from the night’s ordeal that when I finally passed out I didn’t want to wake up.

Unfortunately (and fortunately) my fiancée wanted me to go to Urgent Care. The reason it was fortunate is because we felt as though they could help. The reason it was unfortunate is because I do not have a regular doctor (since I am usually very healthy) and in our city there is a 4 month wait to get in to see a doctor.

Four Days of Persistent Hiccuping with no Rest

The next day was mellow for the most part. I was still in pain and suffering from Acid Reflux along with my hiccups but because there was almost nothing in my stomach I didn’t feel as through the Acid Reflux was as bad as it was the night before. I had been living on Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes for the past few days which also seemed to help with the Acid Reflux as my system didn’t need to work so hard to process the food.

Saturday came and went. I still suffered from eventual gagging and wrenching as the night went on. I am hesitant to use the word “vomit” because my body never really rejected any food. It was as through something was stuck in my throat forcing me to throw up little bits of stomach acid and bile.

G.I. Cocktail for Diagnosing Gastro Chest Pains from Hiccuping

So the hospital doctors needed to diagnose whether my chest pains were related to a Gastro problem.

To do this they have patients drink a G.I. Cocktail (Gastrointestinal Cocktail) which consists of Milk of Magnesia and viscous Lidocaine. The drink is thick and syrupy and tastes pretty bad. It is about half a cup of liquid and you just need to drink it down quickly and get it over with.

Within minutes of drinking the G.I. Cocktail my mouth and throat went numb, which is completely normal and is a function of the drink used to rule out potential cardiac problems.

They also prescribed two bags of saline solution to re-hydrate my body after 3 hours of gagging, and partial vomiting. In addition to the saline solution I was given an IV form of Prochlorperazine to treat nausea and Benadryl to counteract some of the symptoms of “restlessness” associated with the medication.

While the G.I. Cocktail helped with the severe chest pains I was experiencing as a result of the Acid Reflux, it did not do anything to relieve my hiccups. I was sent home from the ER three hours later in slightly less pain than I arrived in with a perscription for Prochlorperazine.

One thing I noticed in the ER is that both the nurse and the doctor did not seem to listen to what I was saying about how I felt. In their minds they were treating me for nausea and stomach problems when in fact I was suffering from gagging, with no nausea that felt more as though I was choking on a chicken bone. This feeling lead to the eventual vomiting, which was most likely a result of the nonstop Acid Reflux I was experiencing.

I had been sick for several days prior to my oral surgery date and came in with a slight cough. I was able to control it for the most part so I didn’t think it should affect the surgery. They gave me General Anesthesia for the surgery and the next thing I remember was coming to in the recovery room. The first thing I heard was my fiancé asking “Are his hiccups normal? He never gets them…”

Being pretty drugged up at the time I didn’t think much of this. I was helped into the car and driven home by my fiancée all the while hiccupping throughout the car ride.

When I got home I slept for 4 hours and when I woke up the first thing I noticed was that I still had the hiccups. At this point I started to wonder how long I had been hiccupping. By my initial count it was in the range of about six hours, so far…

As the first two days went by I didn’t think much of them because of the pain killers the dentist had me taking. Sure it was annoying, but I wasn’t uncomfortable yet.

Experiencing 7 Days of Persistent Hiccups

Hi, my name is Paul. I am 28 years old and have put off getting my Wisdom Teeth out for almost 10 years. I always made up a bunch of excuses for why I didn’t want to get my Wisdom Teeth out. Whether it was the cost, or the potential pain, or even the fear of oral surgery, I made a poor decision in waiting ten years to have it done.

After several years of procrastination I finally made the decision one painful night to have my Wisdom Teeth removed. They were coming in more than normal and it was quite painful so it motivated me to follow through and finally have them removed.

I went in for a consultation and was told by the doctor that every single Wisdom Tooth I had was impacted, but that the surgery should be relatively straight forward.

A Site About How to Cure The Hiccups

If you have ever been plagued with severe hiccups in your life you know what a truly frustrating, stressful, and draining experience it can be. It wears on you both physically and mentally until you are ready to snap.

My story is the same as many people’s, but the extent of what I dealt with made me want to share my experience with others. If the information I share on this blog helps even one person from dealing with what I went through, I will feel the site has served its purpose.