Hiccup remedy: Gulp, don’t sip

Q: So I tried treating hiccups by drinking a glass of water quickly, swallowing continuously without pausing between swallows. That worked. The standard “drink a glass of water” advice doesn’t work if you just sip it.

A: We suspect that most hiccup remedies work by stimulating the vagus nerve. This network of nerves collects information from the body’s major organs starting above the throat and reaching down to the colon.

Many home remedies for hiccups appear to stimulate this important nerve. Presumably, continuous swallowing as you describe has a similar effect on the vagus nerve.

Q: My friend said he thought low vitamin D levels make you more susceptible to COVID-19. Is that true?

A: Researchers at the University of Chicago investigated this question (JAMA Network Open, Sept. 3, 2020). They examined data on patients who were tested for COVID-19 at the hospital. Among them, a group of 489 patients had had their vitamin D levels measured last year before the pandemic began.

Nineteen percent of those who had levels characterized as deficient had positive COVID-19 tests compared with 12% of those with adequate vitamin D levels. Previous research indicated that vitamin D supplementation might reduce viral respiratory infections. Many of these are caused by coronaviruses other than SARS-CoV-2. The authors state: “These findings suggest that randomized clinical trials with varying doses of vitamin D may be warranted in populations with and without vitamin D deficiency to understand if vitamin D reduces the risk of COVID-19.”