Document XzM53Gmnqv4z0jg0JYje7YekG

B4 HEALTH Researchers denounce sodas as spermicides, but rate 'old Coke' best By ALLAN PARACHINI THE IO S ANGELES TIMES Ever since they made a market ing blunder of Edsel magnitude, it has not been easy for the makers of Coca-Cola. Now, as if the company did not already have enough problems with the ill-fated new formula for its flagship soft drink, researchers at no less than Harvard Medical School find New Coke fails in yet another respect -- sperm-killing ability when used (foolishly) as a contraceptive douche. And though this is not the sort of thing that could lead to a new ver sion of the Pepsi Challenge, the re searchers said they found marked differences in the ability of four dif ferent Coca-Cola formulations to act as a spermicide. At the same time, they warned against the use of soft drinks of any kind as douches after intercourse to pre vent pregnancy. While there are differences among soft drinks, all fail as effective contraceptives, the researchers noted. Their measurements, though, said the members of the Harvard team, led them to conclude - in ways Coca-Cola may never have intended in its advertising --that of the two most widely sold forms of the drink, Classic Coke "is it." The variations in the Cokes' spermicidal capabilities apparent ly have to do, the team reported, with some hidden nuance of the se cret formula for what is now called Old Coke. The formula has been guarded jealously for decades. The improbable conclusion about Coke, reached by three research ers who admitted they undertook the study as much because they thought the premise funny as any thing else, was published last Thursday in, of all places, the New England Journal of Medicine. "This is not Nobel Prize-winning work," confided Dr. Sharee Umpierre, a Harvard research fellow in obstetrics and gynecology who headed the three-person team that included one other fellowship hold er and a full professor. The new study brought guffaws from reproductive health experts across the country who agreed that soda pop douches are not widely employed among young American women. But the same experts were divided on the extent to which such a belief has existed in medical folk lore in the United States though unanimous in their opinion that douching to prevent pregnancy is totally ineffective. The Harvard team, which includ both the Harvard doctors and other "They must have strange people ed Umpierre, Dr. Joseph Hill and experts questioned about the new on the East Coast," observed Dr. Deborah Anderson, took up the study agreed that the serious medi Larrian Gillespie, a Los Angeles question, they said in a brief report cal purpose of such humor should urologist. "And they think Califor published as a letter to the editor, be to call attention to the ineffec nia people are kinky. No way." because they had become aware tiveness of trying to douche for But Dr. Gerald Bernstein, a Uni that in some underdeveloped coun birth control after the fact. Even versity of Southern California ex tries --and, perhaps, even in cer with Coke's effectiveness as a sper pert, said he remembers the Coca- tain U.S. population groups - a be micide established, the problem is Cola douche as a fixture of lief persists in the value of the that no douche can be adminis 1960sSouthern California teen-age Coca-Cola douche. tered quickly enough to prevent at life when, as a young intern and To test the sperm-killing abilities least some sperm from migrating resident physician, he was aware of various Coca-Cola products, the from the vagina to the uterus - soda pop was widely used as a con three researchers prepared test some sperm have completed that traceptive. " It was the thing you tubes containing small samples of journey within 90 seconds after in did on the beach," Bernstein said. carefully preserved sperm and tercourse. A contraceptive technology ex poured in small amounts of Diet No only that, but using Coke as a pert at the federal government's Coke, New Coke, caffeine-free New douche cannot ensure that, what- Centers for Disease Control in At Coke and Classic Coke --carefully lanta issued a strong caution that repeating the test three times for even examining the question in jest each soda. kin in * could induce some American teen All of them killed some sperm, agers to believe soda douches can but New Coke turned out to be least avert pregnancy. effective, with Diet Coke having "I grew up in Texas and I never the most pronounced effect overall heard of this," said the govern and Classic Coke recording a five ment expert, Dr. Nancy Lee. "My times greater sperm-killing rate fear is that teen-agers and people than its upstart rival. "Coca-Cola who are not particularly well-read products do appear to have a sper may actually believe this." There micidal effect," the study dead- is one consistent reality about^ panned. "Furthermore, our data douches as contraceptives, agreed indicate that, at least in the area of Lee and other experts: They sim spermicidal effect, `Classic Coke' ply do not -- in fact, cannot - `is it.' " work. Despite these results, however, 1 ever the formula, the soda will reach all sperm that may remain in a woman's reproductive system. There is also the fact that the force of introducing any douche is easily capable of pushing live sperm even closer to the uterus than they were. Coca-Cola saw little humor in the Harvard project. A spokesman said the company had not seen the new report, but "our position is we do not promote any of our products for any medical use." As for the Harvard researchers, Umpierre professed consternation when contacted by a reporter. "Oh, my God," sne said, "I hope my mother doesn't read this! "