Natures wonders: woman drunk without drinking (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, June 03, 2024, 18:29 (171 days ago) @ David Turell

What a surprise:

https://www.livescience.com/health/viruses-infections-disease/a-woman-kept-getting-drun...

"A woman kept mysteriously getting drunk despite not consuming alcohol. Turns out, a rare condition called "auto-brewery syndrome" was to blame.

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"Prior to having these drunken episodes, the woman had a five-year history of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs), which come back repeatedly and are very difficult to prevent. To treat these, she was prescribed frequent courses of antibiotics, one after the other.

"The woman's doctors suspected that, in addition to clearing her UTIs, these heavy doses of antibiotics wiped out helpful bacteria in her gut. This likely cleared the way for various fungi in the gut to take over. Some of these fungi can ferment carbohydrates, essentially brewing their own alcohol.

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"Auto-brewery syndrome arises when such fungi — including Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer's yeast, and Candida albicans — grow in high enough concentrations and access enough carbs through a person's diet to intoxicate them. Some bacteria have also been tied to the syndrome. People with high blood sugar and a poor ability to break down alcohol are thought to be more prone to the disorder, and these characteristics partly come down to genetics.

"It can be difficult to get a diagnosis for auto-brewery syndrome, as it's very rare. Fewer than 100 cases have been reported since its discovery in the late 1940s.

In the woman's case, before being diagnosed with the condition, she was assessed several times by psychiatrists in the ER for signs of alcohol use disorder. However, none of these assessments pointed to signs of addiction. At her seventh ER visit, a doctor suggested that auto-brewery syndrome might be a possibility and started her on a course of antifungal medication. After being referred to a gastroenterology clinic, she was also placed on a low-carb diet to deprive the fungi of sugar to ferment.

"After her symptoms went away for several months, the patient upped her carb intake, and symptoms of drunkenness returned. Again, antifungal drugs and a low-carb diet eliminated the symptoms.

"The patient was also given probiotics to help restore the helpful bacteria in her gut, and her primary care doctor was advised to give her narrow-spectrum antibiotics for UTIs. Broad-spectrum antibiotics kill many bacteria at once and thus can have a huge effect on the gut microbiome. Narrow-spectrum antibiotics, on the other hand, are much more targeted and can be tailored to the bacteria likely causing the infection."

Comment: presented this case because it is so unusual. Our gut microbiome is so important to our overall health as this illustrates. Personally, I've had Augmentin induced diarrhea. Just proves the point.