Coca Cola Researchers reviewed 10 years’ worth of detailed cases on 46 patients with a condition called gastric phytobezoar — a stomach blockage — who were treated with so-called Coca-Cola dissolution therapy.
Phytobezoars, the most common type of stomach blockage, are composed of indigestible food fibers from fruits and vegetables including celery, pumpkin, prunes, raisins, leeks, beets, persimmons, and sunflower seed shells. Unless they are successfully removed or unblocked, they can lead to symptoms like nausea, vomiting, gastric obstruction, perforation, abdominal pain, and bleeding.
These blockages occur most often in people with risk factors that include decreased stomach size or reduced stomach acid production, having had gastric surgery that resulted in delayed stomach emptying, or having diabetes or late-stage kidney disease.
Researchers at the medical school of Athens University found that of the 46 patients who were given Coca-Cola to treat the blockage, the treatment cleared the blockage in half, 19 patients needed additional non-invasive treatment, and four needed full surgery.