A Natural Cure for Hiccups Exists
The search for a natural cure for hiccups that exists has, in the age of the internet, resulted in a multitude of Reddit threads. Many claim a 100%, never–fail guarantee: putting a cold knife on the back of your tongue, saying pineapple, closing your eyes and gently pressing on your eyeballs, drinking water while holding down an ear. Specifically, your left ear.
Spoiler: None of these is a 100%, never–fails, guaranteed cure. In spite the fact that hiccups are so common, surprisingly little medical research has been done for this condition—and even less into how to end an onset.
What Are Hiccups
Hiccups are a weirdly distressing physical experience. Normally, they are benign and, given enough time and patience on your part, end by themselves. Yet there is something oddly uncomfortable about that brief eternity when you’ve just hiccupped and are waiting, bracing yourself, for the next one. And for parents of infants or very young children, hiccups can be even more distressing, since it is difficult to get a little one to understand and perform the steps for getting rid of hiccups.
We might not know why we hiccup, but we have a rough sense of how hiccups happen. They involve a quick spasm of the diaphragm. The spasm causes both a sudden inhalation of air and the sudden closing of the glottis (the space between your vocal cords), causing the trademark “hic.”
Why Do We Hiccup
An unfortunate loop between the diaphragm itself, the phrenic nerve that controls it, and the vagus nerve (a long nerve connecting the brain to the chest, diaphragm, and other parts of the body) cause the diaphragm spasms to repeat. Over and over. For a long time, that was about humanity’s collective knowledge on this subject. Ali Seifi, a neurointensivist (specialist in brain injuries) at the University of Texas at San Antonio is the world’s most cited hiccup expert.
Among hiccup facts, he states that they can have different frequencies, but 10 times per minute is most common. Dr. Seifi often encounters patients suffering from post–surgery hiccups (a common pathology). But he was inspired to research the condition more deeply at the prompting of a stroke patient.
In medicine, pressure is measured in terms of centimeters of water pressure, even if water isn’t involved. Dr. Seifi found the exact threshold of pressure in the diagram required to stop an onset of hiccups, which helped him understand existing remedies and to develop a new one.
All of the current home remedies have science behind them, they are actually valid. They came to the community just by trial and error. Each of the remedies basically works by generating the required pressure in the diaphragm—although sometimes the threshold required to stop the cycle is not reached, so it can be hit–and–miss. One must consistently generate 100 centimeters of water pressure in the diaphragm, which is the effective threshold to stop hiccups in adults.
This hypothesis is based on what physicists call Bernoulli’s Principle. In fluid dynamics, Bernoulli’s principle states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in static pressure or in the fluid’s potential energy.
Gadgets vs Natural Remedies
Based on this principle Dr. Seifi designed the “HiccAway” a special kind of straw that uses this principle, but in reverse. The bottom of the straw has a very small pinhole, while the drinking end has a fairly large one. To get any water through the straw, the user has to exert an unusually large amount of suction, which means generating pressure in the diaphragm.
This straw has the required dimensions for the pinhole at the bottom, the opening at the top, and the length of the straw, such that getting water into the mouth requires exerting exactly 100 centimeters of water pressure.
The HiccAway sold its first unit in 2020, at $13.42 after launching a Kickstarter campaign that raised $60,649. It has now grossed over $1 million. Dr. Seifi has appeared on Shark Tank and co–authored a research letter published in June 2021 in JAMA Network Open.
What is SSMI
But one need not scrounge up $13.42 for this hiccup cure. There is another reliable method, also backed by sound science, which is free. Dr. Luc Morris, a surgeon at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, specializing in tumors of the head and neck.
While still a medical student at New York University (NYU), he wrote a letter to a medical journal. In it he proposed a potential treatment for idiopathic persistent singultus, or hiccups. He named this new technique “supra–supramaximal inspiration” (SSMI).
SSMI is really just a simple breathing exercise. First, exhale completely, then inhale a deep breath. Wait 10 seconds, then—without exhaling—inhale a little more. Wait another five seconds, then inhale a little more again. Finally, exhale. Generally, you will find that your singultus is gone.
In a study of 19 patients (12 male, 7 female, aged 10–51), who presented with hiccups ranging from 20 min to 8h in duration. Findings which were reported in a following errata letter to the Journal of Emergency Medicine. The SSMI technique provided an immediate and permanent termination to hiccups in 16 of the 19 patients (84%). Three patients were unable to tolerate the inspired volumes or the duration of breath holding.
Basically, all of the people who were able to perform SSMI found that it stopped their hiccups. Although, this one study represents the entirety of medical research on SSMI. Further investigation will help determine if more chronic cases respond to this technique. Certain patients may not be able to tolerate the protocol.
This biologically plausible explanation about what SSMI does to the diaphragm is strictly based on speculation. Yet, this natural cure for hiccups that exists is just a sophisticated take on the old remedy of curing hiccups by simply holding your breath.
Why You’ve Never Heard of SSMI
As simple (and free) as SSMI is, the only major health organization that mentions it is Harvard Health’s hiccups page. Other sites considered reliable sources of health information—such as NHS Digital, the Mayo Clinic, and the Cleveland Clinic—mention remedies, but not SSMI.
The obscurity of this technique is likely due to the lack of a clinical trial. How to conduct a clinical trial and getting funding for it is problematic. Since there’s no drug to sell, there is no financial incentive. Nobody would invest money, hire the people, and do all the regulatory paperwork.
Natural Remedies Are Always the Best Option
This is America after all. Nothing is worthy of time, energy, or effort if there’s no money to be made. In the U.S. the rudimentary and substandard health care system that exists is not designed to promote free cures. Patent laws allow innovators to profit from their discoveries or inventions, but only if they can be packaged as a product.
SSMI has no market potential. It can be described briefly with a few words, and is not covered by any copyright. The crucial difference between SSMI and products available on the market is that SSMI cannot be monetized. In this country, despite the challenges of building a successful company, publicizing valuable but free information is even harder.
Sources:
The Cure for Hiccups Exists
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/02/scientific-hiccup-cures-hiccaway-straw-ssmi-breathing/673151/
FEBRUARY 22, 2023