HiccAway - Immediately Stop the Hiccups
HiccAway makes one hicc of a claim: it will stop your hiccups immediately. Designed by Dr. Ali Seifi, Director of the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at the University of Texas, the HiccAway device is basically a redesigned and 3D printed straw. To use it, put the tube in a glass of water and try to drink. It will take a little longer to get that first bit of liquid into your mouth, but once it's there all you have to do is swallow (that's what he said) and, according to HiccAway, your hiccups will go away. One sip and lickety split. Gone just like that.
When I have the hiccups I use the trick of holding my breath and drinking 10 sips of water, which usually works. If not the first time then at least the second or third. But F hydration and having to pee like a racehorse right after, I'll take the single-sip HiccAway method any day.
HiccAway "straws" come with a cap that fits on the bottom to limit waterflow from the glass to the mouth when you suck. Dr. Seifi notes the increased effort your must create to access the water lowers your diaphragm while first opening, and then closing the epiglottis, a little leaf-shaped flap in your throat the prevents food from tumbling down your windpipe. At the same time, HiccAway use stimulates your phrenic and vagus nerves, the former running from your neck to your diaphragm to provide motor control, and the latter running from your brain through your face and thorax and into your abdomen. The stimulation returns your brain to factory breathing settings - i.e., the non-hiccuping state.
HiccAway recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign, and expects to have their working prototypes available in Summer 2020, after they've shipped the hiccup-banishing device to their backers.