You have a super important meeting in an hour, but you also have a splitting headache. You’re sitting in the dentist’s chair and your stomach suddenly decides to rebel. These kinds of problems can seriously spoil your daily life, especially if you don’t have any medicine on hand. Luckily, there are lots of useful tricks that can help you cope with them and quickly get your body under control.

1. Treat a headache by massaging your big toe.

Why it works: There are head reflex areas on the top, on the sides, and on the base of your big toes. If you massage these areas, you might relieve tension in your head and neck.

2. Calm your nerves by blowing on your thumb.

Why it works: When you try to exhale through a nearly blocked airway, your intrapleural pressure gets increased. This stimulates your vagus nerve that controls your heart rate. There’s one more reason why this trick might work on you — your thumbs have their own pulse, so when you blow on them, it affects your overall pulse as well.

3. Boost your mood by holding a pencil between your teeth.

Why it works: Keeping a pencil in your mouth will help you activate your smile muscles, which can deceive your brain and raise your spirits.

4. Soothe a tickling throat by scratching your ear.

Why it works: When the nerves in your ear are stimulated, it creates a reflex in your throat that can cause a muscle spasm. This muscle spasm can relieve the tickle in your throat.

5. Turn off your gag reflex by squeezing your left thumb.

Why it works: Applying pressure to a specific point on your palm can significantly reduce your gag reflex. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to clench your left hand into a fist with your thumb inside it.

6. Stop a nosebleed by pressing on your upper gums.

Why it works: It’s believed that putting pressure on your gums can block the artery that supplies blood to your nose.

7. Swallow stubborn pills by tilting your head forward.

© B-D-S Piotr Marcinski / Shutterstock.com, © B-D-S Piotr Marcinski / Shutterstock.com

Why it works: If you take a drink of water and then tilt your head forward instead of backward, this will help you deal with hard-to-swallow capsules easily. In this case, the capsules should float and will be at the back of your throat immediately.

8. “Wake up” your arm by moving your head around.

Why it works: A tingly arm is often the result of the compression of the nerves in your neck. So if you loosen your neck muscles, this will help you release the extra pressure in your arm.

9. Relieve a headache by putting your hands under cold water.

Why it works: Cold temperatures can tighten your blood vessels and reduce the pressure they put on your nerves. It works best on your hands because they have a lot of nerves that are connected right to your brain.

10. Deal with a fear of needles by coughing.

Why it works: Coughing can work as a simple distraction for your brain. It also momentarily increases your blood pressure, which helps reduce your perception of pain.

11. Make your toothache disappear by putting an ice cube on the back of your hand between your index finger and your thumb.

Why it works: This part of your hand is filled with nerve pathways that carry pain signals to your brain, and the cold temperature is able to block these signals.

12. Get rid of hiccups by raising your arms above your head and stretching.

Why it works: Stretching can effectively reset your diaphragm and stop it from contracting involuntarily.

Please note: This article was updated in April 2023 to correct source material and factual inaccuracies.7