When cars had metallic bumpers, sodas were used to polish them, and popular
acidic soft drinks has also been known to be a good toilet-bowl
cleaner.
Now, Greek gastroentrologists headed by Dr. Spiros Ladas at
Athens University Medical School and Laikon Hospital have published a study
proving that drinking Coca-Cola (the brand name provided in the article) can
open up clogs in people with overly convoluted gastrointestinal systems caused
by the ingestion of digested fruits and vegetables. They published their
findings on Monday in the journal
Alimentary Pharmacology and
Therapeutics.
In the past decade, 24 scientific papers involving 46
patients have been published around the world. Such clogs are called
phytobezoars.
Drinking Coca-Cola, the researchers said, and sometimes the
use of endoscopy, dissolved the phytobezoars of over 90 percent of the patients,
making open gastric surgery unnecessary.
Phytobezoars are composed of
indigestible cellulose, tannin and lignin from ingested vegetables and fruits,
including pineapples and persimmons – which are not harmful to healthy people
but can cause clogs in those who have previously undergone gastrointestinal
surgery or suffer complications resulting from diabetes.
The clogs
involving pineapples and persimmons are called diospyrobezoars and are the most
difficult to break up. Persimmons are very popular in the Far East, and as they
are eaten with the skin, they cause problems in people who previously underwent
gastrointestinal surgery.
Conservative medical treatment to dissolve the
bezoars has included the provision of proteolytic enzymes, cellulase to
eliminate cellulose, or the introduction of an endoscope to try to break up the
clog. When the Greeks first published in 2002 the possibility of using Coca-Cola
– either by drinking it or by gastric lavage (stomach pumping) – it was tried at
various medical centers.
Now the researchers are able to pronounce the
soft drink therapy a success. Even without using an endoscope, Coca-Cola
dissolves bezoars in half of all cases, they wrote, thus drinking it “should be
considered the treatment of choice” in such cases. “Moreover, availability, low
cost, rapid way of action, simplicity in administration and safety renders
Coca-Cola a cost-effective therapy for gastric phytobezoars,” the study
said.
Asked to comment, Prof. Yaron Niv – chief of gastroenterology at
the Rabin Medical Center- Beilinson Campus, Petah Tikva – told
The Jerusalem
Post that, as it happens, “Ladas is a very good friend of mine and told me about
this observation a while ago.”
As chronic drinking of highly sweetened
beverages such as cola has been blamed by health experts for being involved in
the development of obesity and by dentists for tooth decay, it should not be
recommended to people for medical treatment if they do not have bezoars.