I hiccup. What to do?

The former president of Brazil hiccupped for nine months (!) - until doctors saved him. What did they do? And what is the correct way to get rid of hiccups?

In December 2025, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro received three phrenic nerve blocks while hospitalized to relieve hiccups. Hiccups haunted the politician for nine months and exhausted him.

When we saw this news, we realized that we had not yet talked about the fact that hiccups may not be as simple as many people think. Fortunately, there are ways that can be helpful in combating this unpleasant (or even terrible) condition.

Yeah! But this is not even a record.

To answer this question meaningfully, you need to understand what happens when a person hiccups. His intercostal muscles and diaphragm (located under the lungs) sharply contract . These muscles help expand the chest cavity so that a person can inhale; When you exhale, everything happens exactly the opposite.

Apparently, with hiccups, certain nerves (in particular, the phrenic and vagus) and brain structures (presumably the medulla oblongata and reticular formation ) are sequentially excited, as a result of which the person hiccups again and again. Usually - for unknown reasons, really - it's all over within a few minutes. But in a small number of people, hiccups can persist even for years. The longest hiccup in the world was American Charles Osborn - 68 years. The hiccups stopped a year before his death.

Prolonged hiccups are especially unpleasant because they do not stop either at night or during meals. Therefore, people may not get enough sleep and lose weight.

Short-term hiccups are often associated with a person's stomach stretching (located under the diaphragm). This happens because a person overeats, swallows too much air (for example, because he eats quickly), or drinks carbonated drinks.

The cause of long-term hiccups may remain unknown. But it also happens that this is an undesirable reaction to a drug, a consequence of alcohol abuse, or a symptom of some disease.

This side effect occurs with corticosteroids , benzodiazepines (diazepam, midazolam), barbiturates and drugs that are used to treat cancer. This can be a big problem for people undergoing cancer treatment. For example, because hiccups cause pain.

As for diseases, for example, it was thanks to hiccups that doctors realized in 2014 that an outbreak of an unknown serious illness in Guinea was most likely caused by the Ebola virus: this type of hemorrhagic fever can manifest itself like this.

Prolonged hiccups can occur when something continually irritates the vagus or phrenic nerves and their branches, or affects the brain structures involved in hiccups. This happens due to heartburn, stroke, dilated blood vessel, tumor, inflammation - the list of diseases and conditions that can lead to hiccups is long . But still, such a symptom rarely occurs.

There are several methods that have been at least somehow studied, and even more that knowledge about which is simply passed on from generation to generation. To be fair, researching treatments for short-term hiccups is difficult: people don't go to the doctor for this, and all that remains is to instruct volunteers on how to deal with hiccups if they ever develop them. But you won't be able to verify their reports, which makes the research less reliable.

However, there are several methods that have been studied (although the studies were small and far-reaching conclusions cannot be drawn). Here they are:

• drink through a straw that is difficult to drink through. The specially designed straw was effective in 90% of cases. For about 2,000 rubles it can be bought in Japan, China, Canada, Australia, the USA and European countries, but there are no official sellers in Russia and the official store does not deliver to the country;
• technique of active long inhalation (you need to take as deep a breath as possible, and then try to inhale more for at least 30 seconds - at the same time you should feel that air can pass into the lungs, that is, the glottis is open; then you can breathe normally).

We could list here methods of getting rid of hiccups that have not been tested in research, which can be found in journalistic and even medical articles , but you probably already know all this. And you probably have ways that work great (or work for people you know). Share with us through this form - we will publish the full list here in a week.

Update . We received more than 300 responses, and they turned out to be very interesting and even surprising. You can read them here.

First, the doctor will try to find the cause. Secondly, if the cause cannot be determined or it is irreparable, the specialist may offer manipulations studied in a certain number of studies (including rectal massage). Another option is certain prescription medications . If this doesn't help, there are several approaches . One of them is, as in the case of the former president of Brazil, to perform a phrenic nerve block .

Department "Analysis"