Surprising as it may seem, it is possible to be drunk without drinking alcohol. Explanations. Drunkenness is a state designating a person whose “mental faculties are exalted” and whose “state is disturbed” by the absorption of a large amount of alcohol, notes the dictionary of the Israeli......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
You may not know, but it is possible to be drunk without having a single drop of alcoholalcool. This rare phenomenon has a name: autobrewery syndrome, self-fermentation or intestinal fermentation syndrome.
As Em-consult points out, it is a disease in which the ingestion of high-carbohydrate foods leads to the production of ethanol by the yeasts in the digestive tract.
In other words, the condition increases the level of alcohol in the blood: “We all produce small amounts of alcohol by fermentation, but in most individuals, the levels are far too low to be measured,” Barry Logan, Executive Director of the Center for Forensic Science Research and Education of Philadelphia, told the BBC.
In most cases, however, the ethanol produced is removed before it reaches the bloodstream. As you will have understood, this is not the case for people with auto-brewery syndrome.
A very little documented phenomenon
According to the journal Analytical and Clinical Toxicology, this syndrome manifests itself in people suffering from digestive disease or an imbalance in the intestinal flora. But that is not all.
“This phenomenon, which has been studied, has been reported in particular in cases of diabetes, obesity and Crohn’s disease. It should be noted that a case of fermentation auto-brewery syndrome in the urinary tract has recently been reported,” explains the French Association of Nutritionist Dieteticians in a statement.
It should be noted that doctors recommend that people follow a low-carbohydrate and ultra-processed food diet to block the onset of fermentation.
A total of 20 people worldwide are reported to be officially affected by the syndrome.