Auto-brewing syndrome: getting drunk without drinking alcohol

For a year Nick Hess suffered from an inexplicable illness. “It was strange, when I ate carbohydrates, I became weird, vulgar,” he told the BBC, the English newspaper relaying this story. Every morning he woke up with vomiting, stomach pain and sudden headaches. “Sometimes it would happen after a few days, sometimes it would happen like that, bam! I was drunk, ”he explains.

Drunk without drinking
Yet Nick Hess swears he didn’t drink alcohol. His wife, not believing him, even turned their house upside down in search of hidden bottles, without success … So how can one explain his state of intoxication?
The 34-year-old Briton is said to have auto-brewery syndrome. A rare pathology due to an infection of “Saccharomyces cerevisiae”, baker’s and beer yeast which transforms sugar into ethyl alcohol. Naturally present in our digestive system, these yeasts can multiply significantly if the intestinal bacteria no longer control their spread.

During a medical examination, Dr. Anup Kanodia, found that Nick Hess’s intestine contained more than 400% of it compared to normal. “This is the highest level of yeast that I have seen in my entire career,” she told the BBC.

A rare but not unique case
As the British newspaper reminds us, Nick Hess is not the first to be affected by this mysterious disease. Indeed, cases were recorded in Japan in the 1970s. The last recorded case was a 61-year-old Texan who had passed out drunk in the emergency room when he was loudly proclaiming that he had not drunk. a drop of alcohol.

Despite the existence of several cases, this disease remains controversial in the medical community. BBC reporter Helen Thomson interviewed a toxicologist who questions the existence of this syndrome. According to Wayne Jones, the imbalance between yeast and bacteria cannot have such great consequences. He explains that alcohol must pass through the liver before it enters the bloodstream. During this journey, the liver enzymes metabolize the alcohol and eliminate some of it.

Special diet
The auto-brewery syndrome forces those who are victims to adopt a strict diet. Foods based on carbohydrates, slow or fast, or starch such as French fries should be avoided. Anti-fungals are also prescribed to limit the amount of yeast.

Since Nick Hess has been undergoing treatment, he has been doing much better. “I only have one or two episodes a month but they are less worse than before”, he rejoices.