Research, as well as common sense and personal experience, is showing us that small hacks help solve many common and annoying little problems we encounter daily.
These hacks can improve your sleep, promote digestion, hold back tears, and even cure hiccups.
Hacks are either based on information obtained through personal experience or through general real world experiences. While some hacks are approved by science, many are not necessarily scientifically or medically recognized.
The key is to remember these hacks so you can use them when needed.
Here are 10 awesome body hacks that will change your life.
Contents
1. Drink Upside Down to Reduce Hiccups
It can be really annoying as well as irritating when you get a nasty case of hiccups in a public place. To reduce hiccups immediately, you need to increase the level of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.
Drinking water upside-down can help achieve this. It will take your mind off of your hiccups, which is also said to help stop hiccups. To do this:
- Fill a glass with cold water.
- Bend down at the waist and put your head down.
- Drink the water from the opposite side of the glass than you would normally.
- If needed, repeat again.
This remedy may not be feasible to do if you are in a public place. In such cases, try to hold your breath as long as you can, then exhale as slowly as you can.
2. Drink Cool Water to Suppress a Yawn
When you are sitting in class listening to a lecture or attending a meeting, yawning is another annoying issue that most of us have to deal with. Yawning sends the signal that you are disinterested or bored.
To suppress yawning, opt for a glass of cool water and sip it slowly. It will rejuvenate the body and suppress the feeling of yawning for some time.
You can also try taking a few deep breaths through your nose and exhaling through your mouth until the urge to yawn has passed.
3. Hold Your Eyes Open to Prevent Tears
Crying is an emotional reaction that most of us have to go through from time to time. But there are times when we all wish that we could just hold back our tears, especially in public places.
Whenever you feel like crying and want to hold the tears back, hold your eyes open without blinking. This will prevent the tears from forming.
If you’ve already started crying, blink a few times quickly to stop the flow of tears. Turning your face upward and looking up can also help prevent crying.
Another option is distraction through pain. To do this, just pinch the webbed piece of skin between your thumb and index finger. The harder you pinch, the sooner you can stop yourself from crying.
4. Sleep on Your Left Side to Prevent Acid Reflux
Acid reflux, which is characterized by heartburn or burning pain around the lower chest area, most often occurs after having a heavy meal for dinner.
If you are prone to acid reflux, try sleeping on your left side. This will keep your stomach lower than your esophagus, which will prevent stomach acid from sliding up into your throat.
Avoid sleeping on your right side. According to a 2000 study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, a right-side sleeping position causes higher acid levels and an increased incidence of acid reflux as compared to sleeping on the left side.
Another option is to chew gum after eating a meal and going to bed soon after.
5. Use Acupressure to Relieve Nausea
If you’re prone to motion sickness while flying, or are dealing with nausea for another reason, try acupressure to feel better immediately.
The Pericardium (P6) acupoint can help get rid of nausea and vomiting. This point is located between the two large tendons on the inside of your wrist. To locate the point, measure three finger-widths below the base of your palm.
A 2002 study published in the journal Birth reports that acupuncture can treat nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy.
In this trial, women who received P6 acupuncture reported less nausea as compared to women who did not receive acupuncture.
Press this P6 point with your thumb for a few minutes. Repeat several times, as needed.
6. Scratch Your Ear to Stop a Tickling Throat
When you’ve got an annoying tickling throat, you may wish you could shove your fingers down your throat to scratch it and stop the itch. But this is impossible to do.
Instead, just scratch the back of your ear to stop a tickling throat. Avoid scratching too hard as it can cause scratch marks on the soft skin behind the ear.
Scratching stimulates the nerves of the ear, which in turn creates a reflex in the throat that causes a muscle spasm. This relieves the tickle in your throat.
Another option is to blow your nose to expel nasal blockage, one of the causes of a tickling throat.
Drinking a glass of warm water is another simple way to get rid of a tickle in your throat.
7. Put a Pencil in Your Mouth to Combat a Bad Mood
A bad mood can ruin your day. A smile can set everything right, but smiling is not that easy when you are sad or in a bad mood.
To get rid of a bad mood, just put a pen or pencil in your mouth and you will soon start to feel better. The act of putting a pencil in the mouth activates the same muscles used when smiling. This in turn releases dopamine and serotonin in the brain, sparking a feeling of happiness.
Using this simple and interesting mood enhancer technique is something you should try often to keep yourself happy.
8. Follow the 20-20-20 Rule to Reduce Eyestrain
Many of us work on a computer all day, hour after hour. At the end of the day, this results in eyestrain and even a severe headache at times.
To solve this common problem, observe the 20-20-20 rule. For every 20 minutes you spend staring at the computer, you should spend 20 seconds looking at an object that is located about 20 feet away where your eyes do not have to work hard to focus.
This simple trick is easy to remember and should be used regularly to reduce eyestrain.
At the same time, you need to blink your eyes more often to keep them from drying out. Also, do not forget to give your eyes a much deserved break from screen time.
9. Rock Your Head from Side to Side to Treat Numb Hands
When your hands remain at rest in a compressed position, they may become numb or fall asleep. This often happens when you rest your head on your hands while watching TV or attending a lecture class.
The ‘pins and needles’ sensation or the feeling you get when your hands fall asleep is very uncomfortable.
To get rid of this tingling sensation, simply rock your head from side to side. As your hands fall asleep, the nerves in your neck become compressed.
Rocking your head from side to side loosens up the nerves in your neck and provides instant relief from the tingling sensation.
Another option is to shake the affected hand gently a couple of minutes.
10. Reset Your Internal Body Clock through Eating
Those who work in shifts or travel a lot often face challenges going to sleep and waking up at different times than their natural body clocks would prefer.
Shift workers and travelers may be able to successfully manipulate their body clocks through their eating habits.
Eating habits transfer messages to the hypothalamus, which makes decisions about when a person is awake and when they should be sleeping.
By fasting for 16 hours prior to a trip or eating at the times they would if they were in their destination’s time zone, travelers may avoid jet lag.
Shift workers may also benefit from resetting their body clocks in this manner as their shifts change.
Resources:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002927000019730
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1523-536X.2002.00149.x/abstract
http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1988-25514-001
Thanks I get the hiccups alot so this helps!!