{"id":616599,"date":"2024-06-18T01:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T05:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/mysterious-rare-syndrome-causes-the-human-body-to-brew-alcohol\/"},"modified":"2024-06-18T08:13:02","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T12:13:02","slug":"mysterious-rare-syndrome-causes-the-human-body-to-brew-alcohol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/platohealth.ai\/mysterious-rare-syndrome-causes-the-human-body-to-brew-alcohol\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious, Rare Syndrome Causes The Human Body to \u2018Brew\u2019 Alcohol","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPosted on June 18, 2024<\/a><\/span> Updated on June 17, 2024<\/a><\/span>\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/p>\n

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(hiroyuki nakai\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Imagine you turn up to the hospital looking for help because you feel dizzy and can\u2019t stop slurring your speech \u2013 only to be told that you\u2019re simply drunk. Yet, you haven\u2019t had a drop of alcohol.<\/p>\n

This recently happened to a woman in Canada<\/a>, who experienced seven episodes of a mysterious illness that caused her to feel drunk even though she hadn\u2019t consumed any alcohol. It took two years before she finally received a diagnosis: she had \u201cauto-brewery syndrome\u201d.<\/p>\n

Auto-brewery syndrome is a very rare and little understood condition where microbes in your gut start to make alcohol<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of auto-brewery syndrome share many similarities with signs of alcohol abuse, such as drowsiness, altered mood and vomiting. This makes accessing the right medical help difficult.<\/p>\n

Indeed, another person with auto-brewery syndrome in Belgium<\/a> found himself on the receiving end of a drink-driving charge despite not drinking any alcohol. He was later acquitted of his charges after several doctors agreed he was suffering from auto-brewery syndrome.<\/p>\n

The exact number of people who have auto-brewery syndrome isn\u2019t known and there are only a handful of cases in the medical literature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It may be there are many more people out there with the condition than we know of \u2013 but receiving a diagnosis can be difficult, which may limit the total numbers reported.<\/p>\n

From the evidence gathered so far, it appears people are not born with auto-brewery syndrome. Instead, the illness is triggered by a disruption in the gut microbiome.<\/p>\n

Yeast and fermentation<\/h2>\n

To make alcoholic drinks, we use yeast (a type of fungus) to ferment the sugars in carbohydrates. This generates the alcohol in beer, wine and spirits.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s thought that people with auto-brewery syndrome have an overgrowth of similar types of yeast in their intestines. This ferments the food they eat, especially carbs like bread and sugar, and turns it into alcohol.<\/p>\n

The strongest evidence we have to support this hypothesis is that antifungal drugs<\/a> appear to help people with auto-brewery syndrome. Antifungal drugs kill yeast growing in the gut. Several patients with the condition have reported these treatments helped make their symptoms go away<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the Canadian patient, a low carbohydrate diet<\/a> also helped to reduce the number of \u201cepisodes\u201d of slurred speech and dizziness she experienced.<\/p>\n

Limiting how much yeast is in the gut \u2013 as well as the food sources yeast uses to grow \u2013 may help to slow down internal alcohol production. But it\u2019s important to note that we don\u2019t yet have specific clinical proof of this working in patients, so it remains a theory.<\/p>\n

Exactly which yeast is responsible for auto-brewery syndrome isn\u2019t yet known. This is because of how rare the condition is<\/a>, which limits how much we can learn about it.<\/p>\n

But recent research has investigated the types of yeast that grow in the human gut \u2013 and what health benefits these microbes might deliver. This work might give us some clues about what\u2019s happening in people with auto-brewery syndrome.<\/p>\n

One study<\/a> compared alcohol production from different yeast species found in the human intestine. The results showed that a yeast called Saccharomyces cerevisiae<\/em> was able to make the most alcohol in the tested conditions.<\/p>\n

Saccharomyces<\/em> is better known as \u201cbrewer\u2019s yeast\u201d<\/a>, and is the same species that is commonly used to make bread and beer.<\/p>\n

The same study also found alcohol production from other species which belonged to a family of yeasts called Candida<\/em>, which commonly cause yeast infections in humans.<\/p>\n

In patients with auto-brewery syndrome, a \u201cspike\u201d in the growth of yeasts like Saccharomyces<\/em> and Candida<\/em> in the gut may cause each episode of their illness.<\/p>\n

This could be due to the types of food eaten, such as a high carbohydrate diet \u2013 and may be alleviated by following a low-carb diet as seen with the Canadian patient.<\/p>\n

Other possible triggers of auto-brewery syndrome could also include the use of antibiotics or gut surgery, as both of these have been linked with increased gut fungi growth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/3fe1684a85dbe068da1022712a6124fc.safeframe.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-40\/html\/container.html<\/a><\/p>\n

While Saccharomyces<\/em> yeast are commonly reported in human microbiome studies, whether this yeast is a true resident of the human gut or simply passing through after we\u2019ve eaten food containing the yeast (such as bread) is not clear.<\/p>\n

Candida<\/em> species, on the other hand, are well accepted as a regular inhabitant of the human microbiome<\/a> \u2013 at least in the west.<\/p>\n

Although yeast in our gut are much smaller in number than bacteria, they can still have large effects on our health and become a potential source of infection. Overgrowth of Candida<\/em> in the gut has been associated with the development of fungal sepsis in cancer patients<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Patients with severe COVID<\/a> have also been shown to have increased growth of Candida<\/em> in their gut. Early growth of Candida<\/em> in the gut of newborn babies is also associated with developing asthma in later life<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These associations are caused by the Candida<\/em> in the gut affecting the function of the immune system<\/a>. This then determines the likelihood of how well we fare with other infections<\/a> (such as COVID) or developing immune-driven diseases such as allergies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While auto-brewery syndrome may be rare, what is clear is that our gut fungi have wide-ranging effects on our health and immune system. We\u2019re only just beginning to understand how these fascinating yeasts affect our health.<\/p>\n

By studying them further, we might just learn more about intriguing conditions similar to auto-brewery syndrome.<\/p>\n

Rebecca A. Drummond<\/a>, Associate Professor, Immunology and Immunotherapy, University of Birmingham<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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