[concerned lady]

Hi All,

I was contacted by a young man whose friend has severe, constant, long lasting hiccups. Drugs prescribed by the young woman's doctor didn't stop the hiccups.

Since there can be neurological causes, I looked for "hiccups" here, but hiccups are not listed as a health condition here, yet.

Does anyone know of:

1) hiccup expert docs?
2) patient forums for severe hiccup patients?

Since reflux can be one cause of hiccups, I'll recommend avoiding proteins such as: gluten (protein-like), milk products (containing proteins like casein, whey, etc.), etc. (proteins in corn, soy, yeast, eggs).

Carol
http://cantbreathesuspectvcd.com

[moose53]

Carol,

I don't know a forum or doctors that specialize in this.

I saw a young woman on TV recently with this problem and it reminded me of a technique I learned when my Mom was in hospice with colo-rectal cancer and congestive heart failure.

My brother taught me how to do it. It's called "Therapeutic Touch". I learned more by reading the book by Dolores Kreiger (http://www.amazon.com/Therapeutic-To...e=UTF8&s=books).

My Mom had terrible pain in her legs from the CHF. The Touch relaxed her enough so that she could sleep.

Actually, the thing that totally convinced was my son had an infected mosquito bite on his back. I used Therapeutic Touch on his back and when he woke the next morning, the wound was completely healed.

I've done it on myself when I used to get horrendous menstrual cramps.

Basically, you're sharing your energy and your desire to heal with another person. The person doing The Touch has to be in a calm, balanced state of mind.

It really is amazing. The National Institutes of Health is also studying this technique (http://search2.google.cit.nih.gov/se....x=33&btnG.y=5).

I hope the young man's friend can find relief.

Barb

[Lara]

Hi Carol,
If the hiccups have lasted more than a month they're called Intractable Hiccups. You might have a little more luck on some of the forums for Dysphagia or something like that. I had a quick look for forums specifically set up for the Intractable hiccups, but couldn't find anything specific. There are numerous hits though for various treatments. It can be a very serious problem. I sure hope that your friend's friend is over them soon or that they can figure out what's causing them and get that sorted out.

edited to add: I was just thinking about what sort of doctor would treat this condition and I think that would depend on what was the actual cause of the problem. If that could be found, the solution might be more straightforward. p.s. Another word for hiccups is singulitis. Although not used much anymore, I did find it in some places in PubMed ... just an example.

[KimS]

I don't want to be alarmist but I've heard of them being associated with cancer.

I went to google it because I didn't want to post this without some sort of foundation... Unfortunately, I got lots of hits. I hope this is not the case for her.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=hiccup...en-US:official

[SnooZQ]

Yesterday the People's Pharmacy column in my newspaper commented that a number of people have found relief from hiccups by eating one or two green olives. (I would add, chew well, you don't want an olive in your airway.)

I'm not trying to minimize the problem of someone with severe intractable hiccups, but ... I'd be willing to try anything, if it was me, and this fix is within the grasp of most people.

Best wishes.

[RathyKay]

I know very little about hiccups. But, I've been helping in Claire's class when they do the SRA reading program. It's a leveled reading program with a short story or essay that the child reads and answers questions about. One of them was on hiccups. The world's record for hiccups was ??? (yes, I forgot his name). He had them for something like 79 years! For him, they don't know why they started or why they stopped.

[NancyM]

Originally Posted by KimS

I don't want to be alarmist but I've heard of them being associated with cancer.

I went to google it because I didn't want to post this without some sort of foundation... Unfortunately, I got lots of hits. I hope this is not the case for her.

http://www.google.ca/search?q=hiccup...en-US:official

I just read "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs (his memoir) and his friend had AIDS and horrible, horrible hiccups that wouldn't stop. I think it was one of the strange cancers AIDS patients get, but I'm not positive.

[Jomar]

Our Health News Headlines forum has an article on a case of it today.
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=14518
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ad.php?t=14517

[fblevins1]

I am simply going to share my own cure for the occasional hiccups and be on my way. This has worked for at least 20 years for me since I discovered the method on my own.

The first most important element is control......CONTROL,

Think of a Bellow used to increase the heat of a kiln or other heating device maybe used by a blacksmith. The bellow is not spring loaded, it requires a steady actuation by the user for both the intake and output of air, one has to apply intentional force to bring air in and then to force air out. If you think of your lungs as a bellow that you are controlling and you set a flow rate of air that is about half of what you are capable of pulling in and expelling out you. I do not mean half capacity, I mean half the flow rate. So when the hiccups start, first thing to do if it is eating related is to wash down what you just ate, drink some water...whatever.

Now start the controlled breathing.......slowly in and fill your lungs to capacity, then with little or no delay start expelling the air at as close to the rate as you inhaled, slowly exhale.....think about the bellow....Slowly in...Slowly out......control the rate constantly....never lose control of the rate at which you bring air in...and let air out all the way in.....all the way out.....control the breathing...do not let the background urge to hiccup take over.....keep control.

In virtually all events, within 5 - 10 cycles the hiccups are subdued and then are gone. The key is to mentally stay in control of the breathing during the in and out cyle....control.


Got spicy mouth pain from eating hot food? Easy. Go to the sink or other hot cold water dispenser....fill a cup with hot water and add cold water to bring it a few degrees below scalding...hot enough to be uncomfortable but not enough to cause injury. Simply gargle and swoosh the hot water within your mouth and after 3 or 4 cycles your pain from the spices is subdued to a not painful level or even gone. The hot water acts as solvent or degreaser and helps remove the capsium (spelled wrong I am sure) resin. Also the spike pain you feel when the hot water enters the already spiced up mouth helps supress the subsequent left over pain. Result....relief.