Auto brewery syndrome is endogenous ethanol fermentation. It’s sometimes called “drunkenness disease.” This rare condition makes you intoxicated, drunk, and without drinking alcohol.
In auto-brewery syndrome, your body makes “brews” alcohol (ethanol) out of the carbohydrates you eat. This happens inside the gut or intestines. It may be caused by too much yeast in the gut. Yeast is a type of fungus.
This happens when your body turns sugary and starchy foods (carbohydrates) into alcohol. Auto brewery syndrome can be difficult to diagnose. It may also be mistaken for other conditions.
Only a few cases of auto-brewery syndrome have been reported in the last several decades. However, this medical condition has been mentioned in the news several times. Most of these stories involve people who were arrested for drinking and driving.
For example, one woman was found to have the condition after she was arrested for drunk driving in New York. Her blood-alcohol level was four times the legal limit. She wasn’t charged because medical tests showed that auto-brewery syndrome raised her blood alcohol levels.
It’s the type of story that the media loves, but it’s not likely to repeat itself very often. Nevertheless, this is a very real condition. It’s important to be diagnosed if you feel you may have it.
