The Food and Drug Administration approved the vagus nerve stimulator in 1997 as a way to control seizures in some patients with epilepsy. "Persistent digital rectal massage has also been proven effective in terminating intractable hiccups. Folk remedies
There are many superstitious and folk remedies for hiccups, including headstanding, drinking a glass of water upside-down, being frightened by someone, breathing into a bag, eating a large spoonful of peanut butter and placing sugar on or under the tongue.Acupressure, either through actual function or placebo effect, may cure hiccups in some people. For example, one technique is to relax the chest and shoulders and find the deepest points of the indentations directly below the protrusions of the collarbones. The index or middle fingers are inserted into the indents and pressed firmly for sixty seconds as long, deep breaths are taken.A simple treatment involves increasing the partial pressure of CO2 and inhibiting diaphragm activity by holding ones breath or rebreathing into a paper bag. Other potential remedies suggested by NHS Choices include pulling the knees up to the chest and leaning forward, sipping ice-cold water and swallowing some granulated sugar.Drinking through a straw with the ears plugged is a folk remedy that can be successful. In 2021 a scientific tool with a similar basis was tested on 249 hiccups subjects; the results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This device is named FISST (Forced Inspiratory Suction and Swallow Tool) and branded as "HiccAway".
This study supports the use of FISST as an option to stop transient hiccups, with more than 90% of participants reporting better results than home remedies. HiccAway stops hiccups by forceful suction that is being generated by diaphragm contraction (phrenic nerve activity), followed by swallowing the water, which requires epiglottis closure. Society and culture
The word hiccup itself was created through imitation. The alternative spelling of hiccough results from the association with the word cough. American Charles Osborne (December 14, 1892 – May 1, 1991) had hiccups for 68 years, from 1922 to February 1990,  and was entered in the Guinness World Records as the man with the longest attack of hiccups, an estimated 430 million hiccups. In 2007, Florida teenager Jennifer Mee gained media fame for hiccuping around 50 times per minute for more than five weeks. Christopher Sands, a Briton, hiccupped an estimated 10 million times in a 27-month period from February 2007 to May 2009. His condition, which meant that he could hardly eat or sleep, was eventually discovered to be caused by a tumor on his brain stem pushing on nerves causing him to hiccup every two seconds, 12 hours a day. His hiccups stopped in 2009 following surgery.In  Baltic, German, Hungarian, Indian, Romanian, Slavic, Turkish, Greek, Albanian and among some Tribes in Kenya, for example the Luos folklore, it is said that hiccups occur when the person experiencing them is being talked about by someone not present. See also
Getting the wind knocked out of you
Mr.