She had spent an entire month with a burning pain that would not leave her alone.
A 63-year-old woman in Massachusetts, United States, tried two over-the-counter medications for reflux with no results. The real problem was something else: a gastric bezoar, a mass of food accumulated in the stomach, caused by the slow emptying induced by semaglutide, the drug she was taking for diabetes and obesity. Bezoars appear in fewer than 0.5% of endoscopies, and if they are not treated in time, they can become serious.
Her doctors’ prescription sounded almost absurd: a liter and a half of Diet Coke every day, chosen because of her diabetic condition. On the second day, she felt a strong tug in her stomach and the nausea disappeared. Days later, a follow-up endoscopy confirmed what seemed impossible: the mass had dissolved completely.
