BEIJING, Aug. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- The inventor of the Device for the Treatment of Hiccups says you can throw away the paper bags, forget fright attacks, and quit trying to drink water while standing on your head.

    "Hiccups lasting up to 48 hours are classified as 'bouts.' Hiccups lasting longer than 48 hours are called 'persistent.' Those lasting longer than a month are called 'intractable,'" said Philip Charles Ehlinger, Jr.

    Hiccups lasting longer than a month? Intractable? How about excruciating? At this point, sufferers may resort to more extreme measures such as "inducing vomiting, or applying traction on the tongue or pressure on the eyeballs." Sometimes, the best pain relief is torture.

    Faced with the above options, you can see the incentive to invent something new. This device -- which looks like a hands-free version of one of those "cup and string" phones -- is a metallic cup with one electrode making contact with your cheek and another electrode making contact with your temple.

    When the cup is full of water and you begin to drink, an electrical circuit is created, thus stimulating the vagus and phrenic nerves and "reliably interrupting the Hiccup Reflexive Arc." 

    So simple! 

(Agencies)