A doctor on social media has shown the world a strange way to cure hiccups.
Usually, swallowing air is the key cause of a hiccup, and this can occur if you eat too fast, smoke, drink soda, chew gum, or eat too much spicy stuff, but you can also get it when you eat too much and irritate the diaphragm.
TikTok doctor @dr.karanr, an influencer and NHS surgical doctor with more than 4 million followers, recently shared what he knows about the issue.
And while plenty of people have tried all kinds of different methods to cure hiccups, including drinking water upside down and holding your breath in, according to this man, there is a less-known cure called a rectal massage.
Dr. Raj explained why this bizarre process actually works and also talked about who came up with the idea initially.
He starts the video by saying:
“Hiccups are caused by erratic electrical impulses in the vagus nerve,” adding that “rectal massage stimulates the vagus nerve which is part of the parasympathetic nervous system.”
Dr. Raj then goes on to say that “increased stimulation of the vagus nerve helps to control the diaphragm and then terminates the hiccups,” and then talks about the work of Dr. Francis Fesmire, who discovered the weird method.
After one of Dr. Fesmire’s patients had told him that hiccups had been torturing him for 72 hours at the rate of around 30 hiccups a minute, he tried something completely unorthodox.
The doctor remembered reading about a rectal massage where putting fingers into a person’s anus was seemingly slowing down a fast heart rate. And it worked like a charm.
However, if you’re not a big fan of this kind of treatment, there are other alternatives you can try, including pulling on your tongue, holding your breath for long periods of time, biting a lemon wedge, gargling cold water, and more.
@dr.karanr A cure for hiccups #schoolwithdrkaran #learnontiktok #hiccup #funfacts
Many of Dr. Raj’s followers threw in their two cents on the bizarre cure, with one commenting:
“I think I’d rather hold my breath or drink some water.”
Another person joked (maybe):
“Always works for me!”
Dr. Rajan went on to conclude:
“I guess you could say what happens in the vagus nerve, stays in the vagus nerve.”
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