Co-written by Emma Lam and Renee Pu

Illustration by Renee Pu
Hiccups — the distracting, repeating, and sometimes noise-making diaphragm movement. According to Nancy L. Friedman in her Hiccup: A Treatment Review, “a hiccup is an involuntary, spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm causing a beginning inspiration, that is suddenly checked by the closure of the glottis.” The waves of hiccups will go away by themselves after a while without leaving impacts on one’s health, although hiccups lasting longer than 24 hours may be signs of other diseases, which require medical advices from professional doctors. Students in MVHS share their own ways to put a halt to the hiccups before their daily activities are impacted.

Senior Yuhan He

Swallow air at the perfect timing

Whenever senior Yuhan He decided to focus on her homework after a huge lunch, she would be interrupted by non-stop hiccups. She threw away her book and buried her face in her arms in frustration. Determined to not be on the downside of the battle, she held her pen tightly in her hand, and when she felt the hiccup coming up again, she swallowed a huge breath of air and stopped the hiccup right in the middle of her throat. Instead of simply letting go, she froze her movement and held her breath and waited. She waited and waited, and started to let go of the air little by little, until she exhaled in relief when there were no traces of hiccups again.

Sophomore Emily Zhang

Drink water upside down (12 sips.)

Sophomore Emily Zhang always found her method to get rid of hiccups a bit strange. Zhang gets water, bends over and drinks it upside down. Normally Zhang drinks from the side closest to her, but to get rid of hiccups, Zhang stretches her neck and touches the further side of the cup and swallow a mouthful of water. She learned this method in first grade when her teacher got hiccups in the middle of class and stopped to teach Zhang and her classmates to teach them how to successfully cure them using that method. Zhang remembered the most important thing is that you must only do one thing; that it has to be 12 sips. When she didn’t drink precisely 12 sips, her hiccups were never cured. Zhang did it once without 12 sips and it didn’t work. She says that it has to be 12 sips or else it may not work.

Sophomore Devin Pereira

Hold water in your mouth and bend over

Sophomore Devin Pereira was reading a book when she felt it. A hiccup rose from her and she started to ignore it at first. Then a simple hiccup turned to five, then to twenty, and she knew she had to do something. Pereira was annoyed with her hiccups and had a hope of somehow curing them, but with what method? She did what any other teenager would do — go online. Countless websites, one after the other, in hopes to find a cure. Finally, Pereira found just the one that worked. Pereira now takes a sip of water, then proceed to bend down and try to touch her toes.  She then swallows the water and counts to ten. When she stands up, they’re gone.