Home Remedies - Part Twelve

Whether it's grandpa's secret recipe for a hot toddy, or Uncle Bob's sure fire cure for the hiccups, home remedies have been around for a long time. Between the rising cost of medicine and the length of the lines in the waiting rooms, more and more people are turning to home remedies for their minor illnesses. This series is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to home remedies. It should go without saying that the remedies in this series are for entertainment purposes only.

Hiccups

Texas Remedies:
* Take a dipper of water from the bucket, close your eyes, take three swallows, open your eyes, look at the bottom of the dipper and then replace the dipper.
* Hold your left elbow for seven minutes
* Spit on a rock and then turn it over
* Put a dime in the roof of your mouth and hold it there for thirty minutes.
* Roll a piece of red string into a ball and wet it with saliva. Stick it to your forehead just above the eyes and look at it.

One of the common home remedies for hiccups is the consumption of water. This should be done rapidly in short bursts.

Block both ears and drink 6 ounces water without stopping to breathe.

Take some ice and crush it. Now, you can suck this at regular intervals to instant relief from hiccups. You can also drink icy water or you can apply a piece of ice on the back of the neck. This may shock your body and also cause you to take a deep breath.

Close your ears with your fingers, and drink water directly or through straw. It has an immediate effect on treating hiccups.

If you have a hiccough, think of your lover. If he loves you, you will not have it anymore. – Kentucky Superstitions, 1883

Take a draught of cold water and rub the breast and stomach with pepper and vinegar. – Farmer’s Directory, 1851

Hold your breath as long as possible, and let it go out. The lungs expand and push down on the diaphragm, stopping hiccups immediately.

Take a deep breathe through your mouth, lean forward and push down your stomach. Hold in that position as long as you can and then slowly exhale the air through your mouth.

Breathe into brown paper bag. This will increase the carbon dioxide in your body and your respiratory system urges the body to take deep breaths. Those deeper breaths may stop the diaphragm spasm.

Another way is to simply close your eyes and hold your breath. Wait for few seconds and then exhale. This too shows fast effect.

Infuse a scruple of musk in a quart of mountain wine and take a small glass every morning. – Primitive Physick, 1745

A powder to stop the hiccup in man, woman or child: Put as much dillseed, finely powder’d as will lie on a shilling, into two spoonsful of black cherries, and take it presently. – A Collection of Receipts, 1749

A spoon of sugar may also work to stop hiccups. The sugar should not be eaten or swallowed. Instead, the spoon should be sucked on for as long as it takes to dissolve the sugar and ingest it.

Take a piece of ginger and try to suck it slowly. This home remedy for hiccups would stop the hiccups and provide relief.

For some eating a spoonful of peanut butter stops hiccups immediately. It can work for children also.

Black pepper is wonderful herb which is commonly used in hiccups. You can inhale some black pepper as it can induce the person to sneeze and as you know sneezing is a violent movement of respiratory tract and finally it vanishes hiccups.