Some say closing your eyes and holding your breath is the best way to relieve what, for most people, is never anything more than an inconvenience.

Others prefer a glass of water, but for Christopher Sands the problem is a great deal more serious.

For the past 15 months, the 24-year-old, from Lincoln, has been suffering from attacks of hiccups bad enough to stop him eating or sleeping.

The hiccups come every two seconds and so far hypnotherapy, yoga, reiki, herbal medicine and an oxygen chamber have failed to stop the attacks returning.

Mr Sands, a backing singer in a rock band, is now planning to have an operation to help relieve the problem.

He has suffered from heartburn and vomiting since he was 15 as a result of a damaged stomach valve, which has also possibly caused the hiccups. Experts at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham believe the damaged valve causes an acid reflux condition and are planning to create a new valve linking his oesophagus and stomach.

While this will not cure his hiccupping, it should make the attacks less frequent as well as alleviate his heartburn and sickness.

Mr Sands said: "Nobody has any idea what started them. Struggling for air is possibly the worst part of this whole thing. It's really quite frightening.

"The heartburn combined with them is really getting to me. It makes me physically sick. Hopefully the operation will help.

"We did a gig a couple of weeks ago and, 10 minutes before it started, I had an attack. My band mates said we could pull out, but I didn't want to do that so I got a pint of Coke and started downing it, and eventually got rid of them just before we were about to start playing."