Christmas is just around the corner and many of us are no doubt looking forward to a delicious festive meal. If food is stuck in your throat, many people (including many medical experts) recommend drinking Coca-Cola to clear the blockage. Does this really work? A new study from Amsterdam University Medical Center (AmsterdamUMC) provides the answer.
Arjan Bredenoord, one of the study's co-authors, said: "Emergency doctor Elise Tiebie, who was the driving force behind this project, had seen anecdotes online, from tip sites to Wikipedia, and in British newspapers, about paramedics using Coke to save lives. It was really an urban legend, or just a rumor. I even heard doctors recommend Coke."
Sometimes food, usually semi-solid foods like meat, can get stuck in the esophagus after swallowing, causing pain and pressure. People can't even swallow saliva.
"This can be very dangerous, so people must receive the right treatment. That's why we wanted to check if this method works," Bredenoord said.
The researchers recruited 51 adults with complete esophageal food embolism; 28 were asked to drink 0.8 ounces (25 ml) of cola at intervals until the total volume reached 6.8 ounces (200 ml); the other 23 were asked to wait for the food embolus to pass spontaneously. In both groups, if complete response was not achieved, endoscopic resection was performed.
The results showed that cola had no obvious effect on improving esophageal food plug obstruction: 61% and 61% of participants in the cola group and control group respectively said that the situation had improved. In the cola group, 43% reported complete passage of the food plug, compared with 35% in the control group, but the difference was not significant. 18% of people in the cola group and 26% of those in the control group reported a partial pass. There are no adverse reactions or complications from using Coke.
"Using cola to loosen stuck food in the esophagus does not improve the effectiveness; usually, the food will fall out on its own after a while, otherwise, we will perform an endoscopy. Hopefully this study will dispel this myth," Bredenoord said.
The study was published in the British Medical Journal.