The Airline Steward Method of Curing the Hiccups

Today we are going to discuss another breathing method that is used to cure the hiccups. This method is a little more unique than some of the other methods I have discussed so far because it was originally used by Airline Stewards to help cure hiccups while in flight.

This method can actually be performed anywhere so it is not specific to just those who are on a plane. However it does require that you are seated in a chair to perform the exercise correctly.

(Be careful when performing this exercise if you have a bad back or chronic back problems.)

Airline Steward Method to Cure the Hiccups

1. The first thing you need to do is find a chair with a straight back. A standard desk or office chair while usually work, but make sure the back of the chair is straight.
2. Now sit down in the chair and press your back fully against the back of the chair.
3. Take your arms and cross the over your chest as though you are assuming the “crash” position on an airplane. Once you have your arms cross bend forward into a tucked position with your nose pointing towards your knees.
4. Take a moment to let your body relax, and allow yourself to get comfortable.
5. Now slowly apply pressure and squeeze your arms as though you are trying to force the air out of your body.
6. Once you have exhaled the air from your lungs hold your breath for 5 to 10 seconds and then release.
7. Stay in the tucked position and continue to repeat the exercise 4 to 5 times and then slowly sit back up.

At this point your hiccups should be gone. If they are not be patient and try some of the other great hiccup cures I have listed on the site.

Diaphragm Stimulation Exercise for Curing Hiccups

Let’s take a look at another good breathing exercise to help you cure the hiccups. This exercise uses a combination of controlled breathing and visualization to stimulate the diaphragm and cure your hiccups.

This is another good breathing exercise to practice as it promotes good mental health, stress relief and lowers blood pressure.

By nature the hiccups are occurring because your diaphragm is working against your body instead of with it. This exercise is designed to get the two working together in order to cure your hiccups.

How to Stimulate Your Diaphragm to Cure the Hiccups

1. First take several slow deep breaths. While you are doing this focus on the feeling you have in your abdomen.
2. As you take in a slow deep breath feel you chest and lungs expand as allow your stomach muscles to relax.
3. While doing this you should feel the muscle wall between your chest and abdomen drop down.
4. Breath out, and as you do focus on the feeling of your chest contacting. As you do this, tighten and pull up your stomach muscles. This will raise your stomach wall.
5. The best way to visualize this is by imagining that will you are breathing you need to make space for the air in your chest. When you breathe out visualize how this space contracts within your body.

This is the basic method used for controlled breathing by singers, martial artists and yoga practitioners as well as many other sports and hobbies that utilize controlling your breath.

Practice this exercise for several minutes and you should notice that your hiccups have been cured. If your hiccups have not gone away by this point be patient and try another exercise on the site to help cure your hiccups.

Hold Your Breath & Reset Your Diaphragm to Stop Hiccups

This next method is another simple breathing exercise you can do anywhere to help cure the hiccups. These are good techniques to know because a lot of the time the hiccups occur at the worst possible times.

Whether you are in a meeting, or stuck on a plane breathing exercises allow you to try and cure your hiccups without needing any supplies or even needing to move from where you are sitting.

Resetting Your Diaphragm to Cure Hiccups

This method is simple and effective so follow the steps below to learn how to reset your diaphragm.

1. First breathe in as much air as you possibly can. Take one slow, long inhale until it feels as though your lungs are completely full.
2. Continue to breathe in until it is impossible for you to take in anymore air.
3. Once you have done this, start to breathe normally.
4. The act of doing this should reset your diaphragm and cure your hiccups.

Continue to do this until your hiccups go away.

If your hiccups still persist be patient and try some of the other cures outlined on the website.

Cure the Hiccups with this Ten Second Breath Technique

Another great breathing exercise that you can do anytime and anywhere is the 10 Second Breath technique.

This method is yet another variation of some of the other breathing exercises I have outlined on the site. It is good to have a lot of options for breathing exercises as they can help with other things aside from curing the hiccups.

Some examples are:

• Improving overall physical health, and mental well being.
• Helping you lower your blood pressure.
• Alleviating stress or tension and the conditions associated with it. (Headaches, Fatigue, Depression, High Blood Preasure.)

The Ten Second Breathing Method for Curing the Hiccups

1. Start by holding your breath for as long as you can.
2. If you hiccup while you are initially holding your breath, start over and try holding your breath again without hiccupping.
3. Doing this will build up CO2 in your lungs but you should still be able to hold your breath as this occurs.
4. Hold the breath for as long as possible without hiccupping and then slowly exhale while counting to 10 in your head.
5. Make your exhale last the entire 10 seconds while you count.
6. Make sure you do not take a breath during these ten seconds. This period is purely for exhaling a long slow breath.
7. Once you have done this go back to step #1 and repeat the exercise until your hiccups are gone.

This breathing exercise should help you to cure your hiccups. It may take a couple minutes for the exercise to be effective. Continue to repeat the step above until your hiccups are gone.

If this method does not cure your hiccups there are still many other exercises on the site that will help you get rid of the hiccups. Stay calm and continue to work on another exercise until your hiccups are gone.

Curing Hiccups by Holding Your Breath & Sticking Out Your Tongue

As with many home remedies for hiccups some may seem humorous or funny but this does not mean you should discount them.

The methods I am listing on the site are documented from people all over the world as their most reliable ways for curing hiccups.

This next method is another breathing exercise that uses a slight variation of the previous methods I have discussed.

Cure Hiccups by Sticking Out Your Tongue and Plugging Your Ears

1. The first thing you need to do is inhale and then exhale slowly forcing all the air out of your lungs. Do this until your body automatically tries to inhale more air.
2. When this happens, stick out your tongue and take a long deep breath. Inhale slowly taking as much air into your lungs as possible until you feel like you can’t hold anymore.
3. Then take your hands and plug your ears with your fingers.
4. Hold your breath for as long as possible. Remember not to strain yourself as this can raise your blood pressure.
5. After about 30 to 45 seconds, exhale slowly. Draw out your breath as much as possible.

You will probably need to repeat this exercise several times before it cures your hiccups. If it doesn’t work after several attempts remember that there are plenty of articles on the site to help you cure your hiccups.

Be patient and do not get discouraged.

Extending Your Diaphragm, Breathing & Hold Your Breath

There are many variations of breathing exercises that can be performed to try and cure the hiccups. Another good method is to try holding one long breath to try and extended your diaphragm.

By doing this you can break the cycle of hiccups by re-syncing your diaphragm with your normal breathing pattern.

It is recommend that you are in a comfortable position when doing this and make sure not to strain yourself as this can cause an increase in blood pressure.

Holding Your Breath to Cure the Hiccups

1. The first thing you need to do is take up a comfortable position. I recommend laying down flat on your back or reclining in a chair.
2. Once you are comfortable slowly breathe in until you cannot hold anymore air in your lungs.
3. In your mind picture the air inside your lungs pressing down on your abdomen. Visualize this and try to feel it. Doing this, attempts to extend your diaphragm to help you regain a normal breathing pattern.
4. Try to hold your breath for about 30 seconds. Make sure you do not strain yourself, but do your best to hold the breath.
5. Once you feel as though you cannot hold your breath any longer slowly exhale all the air in your lungs. Try to draw out the act of exhaling as this can help cure the hiccups.

You may need to repeat this exercise several times to cure your hiccups.

If this does not cure your hiccups just be patient, and try some more of the cures that are listed on this website.

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.