Diet Coke fixed a woman's stomach blockage caused by weight-loss drug, says a case report
PTC Web Desk: A strange but true medical case is making headlines. A woman on a popular weight-loss injection ended up with a rock-hard lump of food stuck in her stomach, and doctors cleared it using nothing more exotic than diet soda.
The case was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in September 2025 and later covered by Livescience.com.
A 63-year-old woman from Massachusetts, who had Type 2 diabetes and obesity, had been on semaglutide, the drug found in Ozempic and Wegovy, for about a year. She had already dropped 40 pounds when things took a turn. Her appetite vanished, she began vomiting repeatedly and a sharp burning pain wrapped around her stomach and back.
Regular heartburn medicine did nothing, so she ended up in the emergency room. An endoscopy revealed the cause: a gastric bezoar, essentially a dense clump of undigested food trapped in her stomach.
Doctors prescribed a 63 year-old woman 1.5 liters of Diet Coke a day after her Ozempic use contributed to a rare stomach mass.
Two days later, her pain was gone, and the blockage had completely dissolved no surgery required; Diet Coke pulled off the miracle. pic.twitter.com/zru8AqFipQ — Complex (@Complex) July 13, 2026
Semaglutide and similar GLP-1 drugs work by slowing down digestion so people feel full longer. In this patient's case, digestion slowed so much that food simply piled up and hardened into a mass instead of moving through normally.
Rather than opening her up or using an endoscope to break the mass apart, her medical team leaned on an old, low-cost trick: drinking cola. Because she had diabetes, they gave her the diet version and since she didn't enjoy fizzy drinks, they lowered the amount to 1.5 litre a day instead of the usual 3.
By Day 2, she felt a tugging sensation in her stomach, followed by relief. A follow-up scope confirmed the blockage had fully dissolved. Researchers noted that the acidity and fizz of cola seem to help break down these masses, though the exact mechanism isn't fully understood.
On the other hand, doctors are clear on one point: don't try to self-treat digestive problems based on a viral story. Anyone on GLP-1 medication should stick to their prescribed plan, stay hydrated, chew food properly, add fibre gradually and keep up with regular check-ins with their healthcare provider.
Disclaimer: This story is based on a published medical case study and is meant for informational purposes only. The treatment described was carried out under strict medical supervision and is not a universal fix. Readers should not attempt any home remedy based on this article.
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- With inputs from agencies
