Natural Treatments for Hiccups

Hiccups can last from anywhere from a few minutes, all the way to a few years. The world record for hiccups was held by a person who had continuous hiccups for a period of 68 years. Though hiccups usually happen when one is eating or drinking, the problem is not caused because of an irregularity of the digestive system. Hiccups are in fact a problem with the nervous system caused by a reaction called reflex reaction. Reflex reactions use a neural pathway called the reflex arc. This is a shortcut where a reaction is elicited without having to go all the way into the brain for processing and is processed in the neurons of the spinal cord itself. This is the mechanism for nearly all reflex actions and also the reason why some involuntary reactions are faster than thought out responses. This is a useful response for advanced creatures of the animal kingdom but sometimes some oddities like hiccups also occur.

The most common cause of hiccup to occur is an irritation to the nerves in the throat. The nerves in this part of the body are called the vagus and phrenic nerves. These are located in the neck; to this effect, a relationship between the swallowing and breathing mechanism and hiccups does exist. When you drink something too abruptly, cough in the middle of a meal, or ingest too much alcohol, these nerves get depressed and irritated from the pressure. This suddenly causes a spasm to occur in the area that is closest to the nerve manifesting in a hiccup. Curiously, when you eat large portions of food, you can also end up fainting for a few seconds as the nerves get depressed. This is what happened to a famous American president once on consuming a whole pretzel. The best way to describe a spasm in non-technical language is a short circuit of the electrical equipment of the body. Hiccups, in most situations, are not serious and go away once you stop concentrating on them but in some cases require some medical intervention. Some of these interventions require you to be almost put to sleep. This is not to indicate that sleep is the cure but is rather a side effect of some of the nerve relaxing medications that are administered.

As a home remedy, the best thing that you can do to cure a hiccup is to just stop concentrating on it.