Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2013-10-13
A persimmon farmer and his harvest in Tang county, Hebei province. (Photo/Xinhua) |
It is often
advised that persimmon fruit should not be eaten on an empty stomach and a
woman from Wuhan in central China's Hubei province found out the hard way after
doctors found a persimmon stone the size of a bird's egg in her stomach.
The woman
surnamed Huang, 24, began to suffer from a stomach ache the day after consuming
several small persimmons on Oct. 7. After consulting with a doctor, she was
surprised to find that she was prescribed drinking 500 ml of Coca-Cola twice a
day. Three days later, Huang returned to the hospital and to her astonishment,
the stone was no longer there.
"Patients
suffering from stomach stones tend to increase in number during the persimmon
harvest season in autumn," said Huang's doctor, Jiang Qihong. He added
that Huang was the third patient to be treated with the condition this month.
Discussing the unusual treatment of Coca-Cola, he said that the drink is only
effective with younger patients. "The cure of the problem with the
non-conventional method shows that Ms Huang still has a dynamic stomach,"
said Jiang.
Jiang explained
that people who consume large amounts of persimmons take in excessive amounts
of tannin and pectin, which would interact with stomach acid leading to the
formation of a stone. Coca-Cola contains lemon acid and sodium bicarbonate,
which together can dissolve a stomach stone layer by layer, a function
facilitated by the inflation of stomach by large amount of carbon dioxide
deriving from cola. He warned, however, that patients suffering from ulcers,
heart problems, and diabetes must first seek guidance from their local
physicians before undergoing this particular treatment.
Liao
Jiazhi, a doctor at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, said that the unusual
prescription has been in use following publication of a thesis by a Greek
doctor surnamed Ladas in 2002. It is used mainly in treating plant-oriented
stomach stones and the success rate reaches only 23.5%, although the
consumption of cola can make stomach stones more vulnerable to pulverizing
treatment using gastroscopy. Liao said that in some cases stomach stones can be
treated with the assistance of gastroscopy, avoiding any possible side effect
of the cola prescription, such as leftover pieces of stone attached to the
inner wall of intestines.
Doctors
note that stomach stones are formed mainly from the intake of plant ingredients
including large amount of persimmon fruit, hair, or minerals, leading to the
formation of alien objects inside the organ.
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