For years, a 46-year-old man would experience drunkenness without even drinking a drop of alcohol. He eventually got diagnosed with the condition that filled his gut with booze. The man’s stomach became a brewery, fermenting its own alcohol. Nobody believed him when he said he hadn’t been drinking.
Auto-Brewery Syndrome
Auto-brewery syndrome (ABS) is a rarely diagnosed condition that causes bacteria in the gut to transform carbohydrates into intoxicating alcohol.
Dr. Fahad Malik, co-author of the report on the mans’ case, explains that the condition flares up when people ingest sugary or carb-heavy foods and beverages. When they consume these things, it throws them into a drunken haze just as if they’d chugged too many beers. The man appeared to be “unable to function, and it was mainly after meals,” wrote Dr. Malik. The report is published in the journal BMJ Open Gastroenterology.
When The Symptoms Began
In 2011, the man starting getting symptoms of ABS after he received antibiotics for a thumb injury. Within a week after he finished the meds, he experienced depression, ‘brain fog,’ aggressive behavior, and memory loss. The medication most likely disrupted his gut microbiome.
The authors explained:
We believe that our patient’s symptoms were triggered by exposure to antibiotics, which resulted in a change in his gastrointestinal microbiome allowing fungal overgrowth.
Drunk Driving
One morning, the man was pulled over in an apparent case of drunk driving. He refused to take a breathalyzer test and was later hospitalized. The hospital tests showed his blood alcohol concentration level at twice the legal limit. At the time, the hospital and police didn’t believe the man, when he denied alcohol ingestion.
Ohio Clinic
After the man’s arrest, his aunt coincidentally came across a report about someone who got treatment in Ohio with a similar condition. She and the man decided to take a trip to the same Ohio clinic to see if the doctors could help him too. Doctors analyzed the mans’ stool samples for boozy microbes. They found strains of Saccharomyces boulardii and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as brewer’s yeast, in the samples.
These results left doctors suspecting the man had auto-brewery syndrome, so they asked him to eat some carbs to make sure. Eight hours later, the man’s blood-alcohol concentration increased over 0.05%, confirming his rare diagnosis.
Searching For A Permanent Treatment
Even though the man received anti-fungal treatment and was on a no-carb diet, he still experienced flare-ups. He was tired of having spontaneous drunkenness, and he wanted it to end. He reached out to internists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and gastroenterologists, but nothing seemed to work. Until one episode left the man with a severe head injury, intracranial bleeding, and fatal blood alcohol concentration. Even at this time, the medical staff refused to believe that he did not drink alcohol.
Finally, the man sought treatment at Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island, New York. Specialists used a combination of anti-fungal therapies and probiotics to treat the man’s gut microflora; they monitored him closely for about two months. The treatment successfully detoxed the patients’ gut from alcohol microbes.
However, at one point, the man had a slice of pizza and a soda while he was on his treatment, which resulted in a severe auto-brewery syndrome relapse. The doctors prescribed probiotics to promote the growth of helpful gut bacteria in his stomach. Then, slowly but surely, the man was able to incorporate carbs back into his life.
Now, almost two years later, the man can relax, watch a movie while enjoying a slice of pizza without getting intoxicated or injured.
