A man from North Carolina was pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. He told the police that he hadn't had any alcohol, but the police did not believe him.
The man is in his late 40's, and he refused to take a breathalyzer test, so he was taken to a hospital instead where his blood alcohol level was 0.2%, which was 2.5 times the legal limit and was equivalent to drinking 10 beers in an hour. The man swore that he hadn't had any drink that night, but the doctors did not believe him too.
How they found out that his body produces alcohol
Researchers from the Richmond University Medical Center in New York discovered that he was telling the truth the entire time. He was not drinking cocktails or beers; there was yeast in his gut that was converting carbohydrates that he ate into alcohol. His body was brewing beer naturally.
The yeast infection caused ABS
After extensive examination, it was discovered that the man from North Carolina, had a very rare medical condition called ABS or auto-brewery syndrome, also known as the gut fermentation syndrome. This syndrome happens when yeast in the gastrointestinal tract causes the body to change the ingested carbohydrates into alcohol. The process takes place in the upper GI tract, and this includes the first part of the small intestine and the stomach.
Fahad Malik, the lead author of the study and the chief internal medicine resident at the University of Alabama, stated that these types of patients have the exact implications of alcoholism: the breath, the smell, gait changes, and drowsiness. The patients will present as someone who is intoxicated, but the difference is that they can be treated by antifungal medications.
The man from North Carolina, whose identity is not revealed, was treated with antifungal medications. The treatment did not go as well as they hoped, so his aunt told him to seek treatment in Ohio. His basic lab tests at the Ohio clinic turned out normal, but the doctors found two strains of yeast in his stool. One of the yeasts in his body is saccharomyces cerevisiae, which is a yeast that is used in winemaking, baking, and beer brewing.
He was treated at the Ohio clinic, and he was told to stick to a carbohydrate-free diet and to take special supplements. The treatments were working but after a few weeks, his symptoms started again. This time, the treatments did not work anymore despite visiting numerous doctors.
He even became very inebriated that he fell and experienced bleeding in his brain. He was then taken to a neurosurgical center where he recovered in 10 days.
The man sought help from a support group that he found online, and he got in touch with the researchers at the Richmond University Medical Center. The researchers informed him that they believe that the antibiotics that he took years ago when he had a thumb injury may have caused this disease as it altered his gut microbiome. It allowed fungi to grow in his gastrointestinal tract.
The professionals then used probiotics and antifungal therapies to help normalize the bacteria found in the man's gut, and it is the treatment that he continues to do to this day. He can now eat pizza and drink soda again.
