Have you ever noticed that an attack of hiccups almost always comes at the right wrong time.
A hiccup is, I’m told, a brief contraction of the main muscle involved in respiration. This tightening forces the space between your vocal cords to close and that results in the ‘hic’ sound.
Eating too quickly, chewing gum and slurping fizzy drinks are all behaviors that could coax air down your throat where it doesn’t belong and, normally, a bout of hiccups lasts between a few minutes and a few hours.
Apparently, holding your breath does get rid of hiccups as does a good scare or breathing into a paper bag. Be careful though. I know a person who once came close to scaring his friend to death by giving him a near heart attack. Hiccups were the least of his problems then!