Coca-Cola: an unconventional remedy for persimmon stomach stones

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.