A Man Kept Getting Drunk Without Using Alcohol. It Turns Out, His Gut Brews Its Own Booze.
For six long years, a man would experience mysterious bouts of drunkenness without ever drinking a drop of alcohol.
Eventually, he was diagnosed with a rare condition that filled his gut with booze.
The 46-year-old man had auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), a condition that causes bacteria in the gut to transform carbohydrates into intoxicating alcohol, according to a report of the man's case, published Aug. 5 in the journal BMJ Open Gastroenterology. The condition flares up when people consume sugary or carb-heavy foods and beverages, and throws them into a drunken haze just as if they'd knocked back too many beers, the man's doctors wrote.
The man was "unable to function, and it was mainly after meals," Dr. Fahad Malik, co-author of the report, told the Today show. The man's symptoms emerged after he received antibiotics in 2011 following a "complicated traumatic thumb injury," the report said. The medication likely disrupted his gut microbiome, or the community of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, living there. "No one believed him" when the man said he didn't drink, Malik said.
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For six long years, a man would experience mysterious bouts of drunkenness without ever drinking a drop of alcohol.
Eventually, he was diagnosed with a rare condition that filled his gut with booze.
The 46-year-old man had auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), a condition that causes bacteria in the gut to transform carbohydrates into intoxicating alcohol, according to a report of the man's case, published Aug. 5 in the journal BMJ Open Gastroenterology. The condition flares up when people consume sugary or carb-heavy foods and beverages, and throws them into a drunken haze just as if they'd knocked back too many beers, the man's doctors wrote.
The man was "unable to function, and it was mainly after meals," Dr. Fahad Malik, co-author of the report, told the Today show. The man's symptoms emerged after he received antibiotics in 2011 following a "complicated traumatic thumb injury," the report said. The medication likely disrupted his gut microbiome, or the community of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, living there. "No one believed him" when the man said he didn't drink, Malik said.
A Man Kept Getting Drunk Without Using Alcohol. It Turns Out, His Gut Brews Its Own Booze.
A man with auto-brewery syndrome would become drunk after eating carbs.
