The One Rare Medical Condition Coca-Cola Can Actually Cure

We all know Coca-Cola as the fizzy, refreshing drink that’s perfect for a hot day or a quick pick-me-up. But let’s get real—Coke is far from health food. With its high fructose corn syrup content, it’s not doing your heart any favors. And if you care about your smile, beware: that soda’s acidity is infamous for wearing down your enamel. Plus, kidney stones? Yeah, better not even go there.

But here’s the kicker: despite all those downsides, Coca-Cola has a little-known medical claim to fame. It might actually help cure a rare digestive condition called gastric phytobezoars. Say what now?

What’s a gastric phytobezoar?

Imagine a stubborn lump trapped inside your stomach that just won’t budge. That’s basically what a bezoar is—an accumulation of stuff that your body can’t digest. Different types of bezoars exist, depending on what’s stuck inside. Babies can develop lactobezoars, which are clumps of milk. Some people with a rare compulsion to swallow hair may develop trichobezoars. And then there’s the star of today’s story: phytobezoars—masses made up of plant material like cellulose, grape skins, or even persimmons.

These plant lumps can cause all sorts of unpleasant symptoms like nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Not exactly something you want hanging around your stomach for long.

Why Coca-Cola might be your stomach’s secret weapon

Here’s where things get interesting. Thanks to its carbonation and acidity, Coca-Cola has been shown to help dissolve these pesky phytobezoars. Over a decade of studies reveal that drinking Coke—often alongside other treatments—helped break down phytobezoars in over 90% of cases. Even more impressive, in about half the cases, Coca-Cola alone was enough to dissolve the mass without any extra medical intervention.

Now, there’s a special type of phytobezoar known as diospyrobezoars—those formed specifically from persimmons, common in parts of Asia. Initially, researchers thought Coke wasn’t that effective on these tougher lumps, with success rates under 25%. But later studies proved otherwise, showing that Coca-Cola could indeed work well against diospyrobezoars too.

So, if you ever wake up feeling like you swallowed a whole orchard (or a tree is growing in your stomach), a cold Coke might just be the surprising remedy that helps you out.

The takeaway?

Coca-Cola probably isn’t the “health drink” you should be reaching for every day. But its unique chemical properties do give it a curious place in medical history—and a quirky claim to fame as a proven aid against a very specific and rare digestive problem.

Next time you crack open a Coke, you might think of it not just as a guilty pleasure but also as a tiny, fizzy champion fighting the rare stomach invaders we never knew it could.