WHAT CAUSES THEM AND WHICH REMEDIES ACTUALLY WORK? FAST FACTS ABOUT HICCUPS Everyone knows the feeling of impending dread that arises when a hiccup first escapes your throat. While hiccups usually go away on their own within a few minutes, they can interfere with eating and talking in a frustrating way. As a result, many people have come up with creative tricks to get rid of them. With common solutions like having a friend scare you or eating a heaping spoonful of sugar, how can you tell which of these remedies actually works? Hiccups occur when your diaphragm— a thin muscle in your chest that assists with breathing — spasms involuntarily, causing you to suddenly inhale. When this happens, your vocal cords snap shut, resulting in the hiccup’s distinctive guttural sound. While many household remedies are supported by centuries of anecdotal evidence, only a handful of studies have evaluated their effectiveness. Here are three natural methods backed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). BREATHING While there are countless remedies that involve holding your breath, only one is encouraged by the CDC. Place a paper bag over your nose and mouth and breathe in and out deeply and slowly. This increases the carbon dioxide levels in your blood, which is thought to calm nerves and relax the diaphragm. PRESSURE POINTS Applying pressure to certain points on your body may relax your diaphragm or stimulate your vagus and phrenic nerves. The CDC recommends gently pulling your tongue forward once or twice to stimulate the nerves and muscles in your throat. If that doesn’t help, you can try plugging both your nostrils and ears while simultaneously drinking a glass of water. EATING AND DRINKING Some remedies include ingesting strange products through even stranger means, but only a few food- or drink-based remedies are actually touted by experts. While your favorite uncle might argue that a tablespoon of mustard, honey, or peanut butter does the trick, the CDC suggests that you gargle with iced water, suck on a thin slice of lemon, or drink an entire glass of warm water very slowly without breathing. Similar to the pressure point remedies, these methods are thought to relax your diaphragmatic nerves. While everyone seems to have a tried-and-true method they swear by, the next time you’re plagued with the hiccups, perhaps you should consider one of the CDC’s official solutions.
MYOFASCIAL DECOMPRESSION
What It Can Do for You
NOVA Chiropractic & Acupuncture is continually up-to-date on the best treatments for our patients. Dr. Todd Sullivan is always looking for educational courses to take to ensure he is caught up with the newest methods of treating patients. Just last month, he took a course focused on Myofascial Decompression (MFD). This technique was developed by physical therapist Dr. Christopher DaPrato, who treated the swimming athletes in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro with MFD. If you noticed some of the swimmers with black and blue cup marks on their shoulders, that’s because Dr. DaPrato had used the MFD technique. MFD might seem similar to cupping, but it’s actually a different and newer technique. Cupping is used by acupuncturists who place cups on your body’s acupuncture points to relieve pain and increase your body’s circulation. MFD uses cups that are placed on tight or painful muscles and are paired with active motion and exercise. The cups decompress the tight muscles, relieving pain and improving range of motion. Dr. DaPrato learned that this method not only relieved the athletes of their stiffness and pain but also improved their performance. Dr. Sullivan was trained in traditional cupping but also knew this new technique would benefit many of his patients. “One of my friends who’s a chiropractor told me about MFD, and I’ve been interested in this area ever since,” he says. “So I already had it in my head as one of the continuing education courses I wanted to take. Then, I found out that Dr. DaPrato was holding a course near my office, and I had to go. It was the perfect opportunity.” Patients who undergo MFD treatment can expect pressure where the cups are placed on your skin, but it isn’t painful. Once you go through the exercises and the cups are taken off, the pain and tightness felt before the treatment will have decreased drastically, and you will experience an increase in your range of motion. “If you had shoulder pain or tightness in your shoulders, once those cups are off, it feels like a weight has been lifted off of you,” Dr. Sulivan explains. If you have been suffering frommuscle pain or tightness, ask Dr. Sullivan if Myofascial Decompression would be an treatment option for your condition.
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