- Auto-brewery team: reasons
- Auto-brewery team: symptoms
- Auto-brewery team: diagnostics
- Auto-brewery team: treatment
Auto-brewery syndrome is a disease in which the patient experiences episodes of intoxication … without consuming any amount of alcohol. It is not difficult to guess what such a condition can lead to - the patient may have professional problems during such episodes, but also cyclically unpleasant ailments resembling the symptoms of a typical hangover. What are the causes of the auto-brewery syndrome, can this unit be treated somehow and why is it now being talked about in Poland?
Auto-brewery syndrome(akaintestinal fermentation syndrome , abbreviated to GFS, derived from gut fermentation syndrome) is a very rare - so far only a few cases have been recognized worldwide. This problem can occur in both children and adults and can definitely complicate patients' lives.
People with auto-brewery syndrome experience episodes that not only resemble intoxication, but are essentially intoxicated. Well, in the case of this unit, patients, despite even complete abstinence, develop alcohol in their blood - alarmingly, its content can be even a few per mille.
So far, mainly foreign patients experiencing enteric fermentation syndrome have been reported. In Poland, this unit has started to get loud not long ago, and all thanks to the twenty-something-year-old from Warsaw, who suffers from the auto-brewery team. The man had been experiencing unusual ailments for a long time - when trying to obtain medical help, he was simply suspected of being drunk, and even suggested that he needed psychiatric treatment. Ultimately, it turned out that the Pole suffers from the auto-brewery syndrome.
Auto-brewery team: reasons
About the causes of the auto-brewery syndrome - if only because this unit is extremely rare - not everything is known yet. So far, the association of the intestinal fermentation syndrome has been observed, including with short bowel syndrome or Crohn's disease, it has also been noticed that this problem may be a consequence of antibiotic therapy. But what is the direct cause of the spontaneous appearance of alcohol in patients' bodies? Well, they are … mushrooms.
Various mushrooms - mostly yeasts -they are known to be capable of producing alcohol. The knowledge about it has been used for a long time, after all, with the use of yeast, many alcohols are produced, which are consumed by people. These organisms can produce ethanol through various processes for which they use carbohydrates.
In normal conditions, yeast lives in the human digestive tract, but their amounts are much smaller than the amount of bacteria present there. However, various phenomena - incl. antibiotic therapy - they can disrupt the composition of the intestinal flora and through them a significant number of fungi can multiply in the digestive tract.
Such species of these organisms, such asCandida albicansorSaccharomyces cerevisiae , are able to convert sugars into alcohol and when in the body there are large amounts of them, it may be that the patient develops the enteric fermentation syndrome.
Auto-brewery team: symptoms
The main symptom of the auto-brewery syndrome are episodes in which there is alcohol in the blood of patients and this is completely unrelated to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. However, ethanol does not come in the bodies of patients completely out of nowhere. Mushrooms produce it from carbohydrates, and therefore it is the supply of sugars, especially simple sugars, with a meal, to the greatest extent contributing to the symptoms of auto-brewery syndrome.
The problems associated with enteric fermentation syndrome arise not only from the fact that the patient is drunk in unexpected situations, such as during school or work. The production of alcohol in the body also leads to the fact that - when ethanol is already metabolized - patients experience typical symptoms, the so-called a hangover, which can be, for example, headaches, strong thirst or irritation.
The auto-brewery team, although it may seem like a bizarre unit, is in fact an extremely serious problem. By burdening this condition, patients may experience problems in many different aspects of life - it may be difficult for them, for example, to keep employment (the employer may eventually be convinced that the patient constantly consumes alcohol), in addition, people with bowel fermentation syndrome may be, completely unfairly accused about alcoholism. Ultimately, the auto-brewery team may lead to the emergence of other disorders, such as depression or various anxiety disorders.
Auto-brewery team: diagnostics
The diagnosis of the auto-brewery syndrome itself is not complicated, but the most important thing is to suspect that the patient may suffer from thisunit. In the diagnosis of intestinal fermentation syndrome, tests such as the oral glucose load test in combination with the subsequent determination of ethanol in the blood, as well as stool cultures (thanks to them it is possible to determine whether the patient really has yeast species that are capable of producing alcohol).
Auto-brewery team: treatment
Several different methods are used to treat the auto-brewery syndrome. First of all, patients are recommended a proper diet - they should remember to reduce the amount of consumed carbohydrates (it is their consumption that promotes the production of alcohol by yeast). Probiotics are also used, and in the most severe cases of the disease, patients are given antifungal drugs.
Sources:
1. Fayemiwo S.A., Adgeboro B., Gut Fermentation Syndrome, AFR. J. CLN. EXPER. MICROBIOL. 15 (1): 48-50
2. Cordell B., McCarthy J., A Case Study of Gut Fermentation Syndrome (Auto-Brewery) with Saccharomyces cerevisiae as the Causative Organism, International Journal of Clinical Medicine, Vol. 4 No. 7 (2013), Article ID: 33912.4 pages
3. Logan BK, Jones AW. Endogenous Ethanol 'Auto-Brewery Syndrome' as a DrunkDriving Defense Challenge. Med Sci Law. 2000 Jul; 40 (3): 206-15.