A 46-year-old man is producing beer in his own stomach, due to a rare disease called – auto-brewery syndrome. This disease creates a beer-like substance in the stomach, upon eating of carbohydrates.
In a bizarre turn of events, a man got pulled over by police for driving under the influence. His breathalyzer test suggested he’d had an initial blood alcohol level of 200 mg/dL. This kind of level would only be sprouted from 11 to 14 boozy drinks. Therefore, he was arrested. The underlying incident is highly peculiar because the man had not consumed any alcohol at all. It was a play of auto-brewery syndrome.
The man is the subject of a new BMJ Open Gastroenterology case report, which details how he started having dizziness, brain fog, memory loss, and aggression issues in 2011. About a week after he finished a round of antibiotics for a thumb injury.
The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong and referred him to a psychiatrist. Psychiatrist prescribed antidepressants, however, that didn’t help his cause.
Fortunately, his aunt had read about cases of people who act drunk after they said they hadn’t been drinking. Hence, she urged him to get more tests, and eventually, doctors discovered the fungus Saccharomyces cerevisiae (aka brewer’s yeast) in his stool sample.
Brewer’s yeast is usually used to turn carbohydrates into alcohol during the brewing process – this was in process inside his stomach. The man was then diagnosed with the auto-brewery syndrome, prescribed anti-fungal medication, and prescribed to not eat carbs.
People who suffer through auto-brewery syndrome seem drunk, even if they have not consumed any alcohol. This can include symptoms like vomiting, burping, dizziness, loss of coordination, and memory loss. These patients also usually have a high-sugar, high-carbohydrate diet.
