6 health tricks to feel better right now

These surprising home remedies can help you recover quickly from common ailments and get you where you want to go.

• Plug your ears with your fingers for thirty seconds — that action will send a signal to your vagus nerve (which connects to your diaphragm) to relax.
• Stick out your tongue. Doing so stimulates the opening between the vocal cords; you'll end up breathing more evenly, which in turn will help calm the hiccup-causing spasms.

• Soak your feet in hot water. The blood will head toward the lower part of your body, relieving some of the pressure on the blood vessels in your head.
• As an alternative, plunge your hands into ice water. You'll get the same results.
• You can also try flexing your hands underwater — that helps mitigate headaches, too.

• Forget the hair of the dog; the best hangover remedy is water. You need to replace the water and minerals in your body that alcohol has stolen.
• Drink a couple glasses of water in the morning — or even before you go to bed, if you had a few too many drinks at night.
• Better yet, have water with a fruit juice chaser. Orange juice and grapefruit juice both contain vitamin C and fructose, which help speed the metabolism of alcohol.

Add a teaspoonful of sugar, and you've got a winning home remedy. The tannins in the tea help reduce intestinal inflammation, the hot water helps you rehydrate and the sugar aids absorption of sodium.

Soothe external hemorrhoids with a cool, wet tea bag.

• As with the treatment for diarrhea, the tannins in the tea reduce swelling and, in this case, pain.
• They also help blood clot, which means applying the tea bag will help stop the bleeding.

The caffeine in the coffee will kick the colon into high gear.

• Keep in mind, though, that you need to limit how much coffee you drink; caffeine is a diuretic and can dehydrate you if you go overboard.

Next time you're on your way out and struck by a headache or a case of hiccups, you'll have a new home remedy to try and get you on your way, discomfort-free!