Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Submission Preview

Link to Story

Team Describes Science-Based Hiccups Intervention

Accepted submission by martyb at 2021-06-18 23:10:00
News
===== +Science =====

Team describes science-based hiccups intervention [uthscsa.edu]:

Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and colleagues worldwide describe a new science-based intervention for hiccups in a research letter published June 18 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

In the publication, the scientists coined a new term for the intervention: the “forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool,” or FISST. The team also reported the results of a survey of 249 users who were asked whether it is superior to hiccup home remedies such as breathing into a paper bag.

[...] “Hiccups are occasionally annoying for some people, but for others they significantly impact quality of life,” said Ali Seifi, MD [uthscsa.edu], associate professor of neurosurgery in UT Health San Antonio’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. “This includes many patients with brain and stroke injury, and cancer patients. We had a couple of cancer patients in this study. Some chemotherapies cause hiccups.”

[...] FISST is a rigid drinking tube with an inlet valve that requires forceful suction to draw water from a cup into the mouth. The suction and swallow simultaneously stimulate two nerves, the phrenic and vagus nerves, to relieve hiccups.

Forceful suction induces the diaphragm, a sheaf of muscle that inflates the lungs during breathing, to contract. The suction and swallow also prompt the epiglottis, a flap that covers the windpipe during swallowing, to close. This ends the hiccup spasms.

[...] FISST stopped hiccups in nearly 92% of cases, users self-reported. In terms of satisfaction, 226 of 249 participants (90.8%) affirmatively answered questions about whether they found the tool easy to use.

On a different measure, subjective effectiveness, 183 of 203 participants (90.1%) indicated that FISST was effective when they used it. Fewer participants answered this question, possibly because it was last in the survey, Dr. Seifi said.

I was walking with some friends, one of whom was a doctor, when I came down with hiccups. He matter-of-factly told me to take a *deep* breath, hold it for 10 seconds, and then exhale slowly -- about 20-30 seconds, He said that hiccups happen when the diaphragm was in spasm. Holding my breath and exhaling slowly interrupted that. I was skeptical, but it sounded plausible so I tried it. It worked for me. And several times since. I've suggested it to several others and it generally seemed to work!

The cases described in the study seem more persistent and severe. FISST appears to be based on a similar principle, so this sounds promising.

Journal Reference:
James Alvarez, Jane Margaret Anderson, Patrick Larry Snyder, et al. Evaluation of the Forced Inspiratory Suction and Swallow Tool to Stop Hiccups [open], JAMA Network Open (DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13933 [doi.org])


Original Submission