Doctors from Canada discovered a rare disease in a 50-year-old woman: bacteria and fungi that live in her gastrointestinal tract convert carbohydrates into ethyl alcohol. It turned out that it was all about the antibiotics that she had been taking for a long time.
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The woman always smelled of alcohol. She was dizzy, disoriented and so weak that she once fainted and hit her head while preparing lunch for her school-aged children. But at the same time she did not drink alcohol, which was confirmed by her husband. CNN talks about this interesting case and its treatment.
She went to doctors many times, but they could not give her a diagnosis. Only two years later did doctors realize that she had a rare autobrewery syndrome. Also known as fermentation gut syndrome, it is an extremely rare condition in which bacteria and fungi in the gastrointestinal tract convert carbohydrates from everyday food into ethanol.
The blood alcohol level is so high that may even be life-threatening. But the person does not seem to feel this and can walk, talk and even drive a car relatively normally.
According to the review, only 20 diagnosed cases of the syndrome have been reported since 1974. Additional information about similar cases came from Japan.
Scientists believe that the pathological process occurs in the small intestine and is very different from the normal intestinal fermentation in the large intestine, which provides our body with energy. Most cases are associated with overgrowth of two types of fungi: Saccharomyces and Candida. The trigger may be taking antibiotics, which destroys the natural microflora.
The Toronto patient we talked about at the beginning of this article began having problems when she was about 40 years old. During this time, she suffered constantly from urinary tract infections, each of which was treated with a course of antibiotics. There were fewer and fewer beneficial bacteria in her intestines, but the fungi felt great. When the woman turned 48, her body converted almost every carbohydrate she ate into alcohol. Doctors believe that if she had not eaten a lot of sweets, the symptoms would not have been so pronounced.
According to doctors, risk factors for this pathology may include: diabetes and liver disease, as well as gastrointestinal diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease and short bowel syndrome, in which the small intestine is damaged or shortened. There may be a genetic predisposition related to how well a person metabolizes alcohol.
To recover, the woman was prescribed a course of yeast-killing medications, followed by a low-carb diet and took probiotics. Moreover, you will have to follow the diet for a long time, perhaps for the rest of your life.