Forget Condoms? Use Diet Coke!
I can hardly believe it myself--but yes, there are funded researchers who study whether Coca-Cola actually is an effective spermicide. But even more astonishing reports the LA Times is that America's favorite carbonated beverage actually is an effective sperm immobilizer.
Better yet, Diet Coke is more deadly to men's seed then regular Coke.
What would ever have inspired such research frightens one to think about, but then again, Coca-Cola has been considered a wonder cure for everything from hiccups to colic, to relieving jelly fish stings. So why not killing sperm? Furthermore, it is clearly noted by the researchers that they DO NOT recommend this as a form of birth control.
Sorry folks--simply drinking it certainly won't work. You can explode Mentos with it or kill a snail, but to prevent unwanted pregnancy--you are going to have to stick to the tried and true methods.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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This research also won the 2008 Ig Noble Prize in chemistry; see http://improbable.com/ig/winners/. To quote:
CHEMISTRY PRIZE. Sharee A. Umpierre of the University of Puerto Rico, Joseph A. Hill of The Fertility Centers of New England (USA), Deborah J. Anderson of Boston University School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School (USA), for discovering that Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide, and to Chuang-Ye Hong of Taipei Medical University (Taiwan), C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang (all of Taiwan) for discovering that it is not.
REFERENCE: "Effect of 'Coke' on Sperm Motility," Sharee A. Umpierre, Joseph A. Hill, and Deborah J. Anderson, New England Journal of Medicine, 1985, vol. 313, no. 21, p. 1351.
REFERENCE: "The Spermicidal Potency of Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola," C.Y. Hong, C.C. Shieh, P. Wu, and B.N. Chiang, Human Toxicology, vol. 6, no. 5, September 1987, pp. 395-6.
[NOTE: THE JOURNAL LATER CHANGED ITS NAME. NOW CALLED "Human & experimental toxicology"]
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Deborah Anderson, and C.Y. Hong's daughter Wan Hong
- by Ken Pimple on Oct 8, 2008 at 1:27 PM | link
There is nothing new under the sun. If an award for this discovery is to be handed out it should be awarded to our local Girl's High Schools (New Plymouth, NZ), who 40 years ago were enthusiastic users of Coca Cola for this purpose. It is nice to know that their confidence in this method was not misplaced. The only problem was, that due to their enthusiastic adoption of this method, they were in danger of doing irreparable damage to their reproductive systems as one of our local gynacologists pointed out to the trainee nurses of the day.
- by purser on Oct 10, 2008 at 10:06 PM | link
I remember reding about this in 80s...
- by John on Nov 22, 2008 at 7:15 AM | link