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Saturday, May 27, 2006

Did you feed the elephant today?

The latest issue of Health has a blurb about curing hiccups. The 4 cures listed are plugging your ears, tickling the roof of your mouth, breathing into a paper bag, and diversion.

There are only two tricks that work for me. Lemon or lime bitters and/or diversion.

The problem with diversion, is that not everyone knows it, and it can be really hard to distract yourself. So it is my mission teach you this method and then you can tell two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on...

Here is how it works.

When you see that someone has the hiccups asked them a question that you know they will have to think about. The first time this technique was used on me I was asked what I had for breakfast, followed by what I had for dinner the previous day. Then I was asked what happened to my hiccups!
You can also ask a silly question like “Did you feed the elephant today?” or demand that someone hiccup at an exact moment.

Good luck and let me how you do.

5 Comments:

I like the sound of that technique. I can't wait to try it.

My hiccup cure is as follows: Drink water out of the far edge of a glass (you have to sort of bend over and be careful not to spill, so I'm guessing that has some effect on getting the diaphragm to stop spasming).
I love this technique! I think I might just mess with people anyway and start saying "Did you feed the elephant today?"
Rozanne -
Your favorite cure is one I never could master - somehow I always ended up nearly drowning.

L.A. -
I can't take credit for that cool question. The credit goes to Health magazine.
Two things work for me:

1. Getting scared (which is not my favorite way, because it has to be startling, which I don't like).

2. Drinking an entire glass of water with a pen or pencil across my mouth. Yes, it's difficult, but if you drink the whole glass, your hiccups will be gone. I'm not kidding. It ALWAYS works.
DeAnn - That is a new one. Do you think the pencil/pen is there because it serves as a diversion? Or is it the water that does it? Maybe it is both.

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