Just this week, one of our coworkers came down with a nasty bout of hiccups, and asked whether Lifehacker had any useful advice for getting rid of them. As it turns out, we did have something useful in the archives. According to the Snopes message boards, the best way to deal with hiccups may be as simple as drinking vinegar.
Vinegar image via Shutterstock
While not the most pleasant process, the readers’ comments on the original 2011 article suggest that no one so far has been disappointed with the vinegar cure. While most people suggest apple cider vinegar (it’s probably the most pleasant to drink) it seems that any type of vinegar is going to give you good results on your hiccups. Another commenter on the original article suggested that undiluted red cordial also worked for them — so perhaps the effectiveness of vinegar may be tied to its strong flavour.
Here’s the original anecdote from the Snopes discussion:
The most effective singular cure for a bout of hiccups I have seen is when the aforementioned hiccuper had a bad bout in the pub. He was starting to despair when the landlord said he’d pour a shot of something that always cured himself. Expecting a tasty jolt of scotch or something, it was with great surprise that he slammed down a shot of finest malt vinegar. No hiccups.
Lifehacker’s Classic Hacks is a new regular segment where we dig up the most popular, useful and offbeat advice from our archives and update it for your modern lifestyle.
Comments
3 responses to “Classic Hacks: How To Cure Hiccups In Seconds”
This might sound like a joke, but this is something true and weird. Whenever my partner get hiccups, I just say “Think of three bald men” and like magic, the hiccups are gone. It’s quite unbelievable how this seems to work for us every time.
A shot of straight red cordial (no water) is an Insta-cure. Never failed me, or anyone I’ve put on to it.
I hic-burp. By that, I mean I use the hic- part of the hiccup, and roll it into a burp. Breaks the air pressure imbalance, and gets rid of it straight away.
Hard to explain, but it works for me, and thats all that matters.
I have nothing but anecdotal evidence for my cure (family cure) but I concentrate on something and the hiccups disappear.
I feel like it’s possible to posit that drinking something like vinegar or red cordial will force you to concentrate on the intense flavour.
Has anyone else tried just figuring out the length of a random hypotenuse to get rid of hiccups?