Caught drunk driving without consuming alcohol? This may be why

Were you ever caught drunk driving without consuming alcohol? Well, that may be because of the brewery functioning inside your stomach.

Hyderabad: Were you ever caught drunk driving without consuming alcohol? Well, that may be because of the brewery functioning inside your stomach.

According to Dr D. Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman and Chief of Gastroenterology, at AIG Hospitals, it is possible for someone to fail a breathalyzer test, although they haven’t consumed a single drop of liquor.

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Addressing the ‘Healthier Women, Healthier Society’ session organized by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO), Hyderabad Chapter, he narrated a similar incident and apprised over 100 participants of the significance of gut microbiome.

“One of my friend’s daughter was caught drunk driving. But she never touched alcohol in her life. She paid the fine and got out. Subsequently, we found that it happened because of a medical condition called ‘Auto Brewery Syndrome’,” he said.

This rare, and under-diagnosed medical condition is caused by the fermentation of ingested carbohydrates by gut fungi resulting in endogenous production of ethanol.

“With around 1000 species, our stomach has both good and bad bacteria. The gut breaks down the food we eat and absorbs nutrients that support the body’s functions. The importance of the gut to our overall health is a topic of increasing research in the medical community now,” says Dr Reddy.

He said the bad bacteria may also be the reason one may not be losing weight, even after following a strict diet and regular exercise.

The doctor also mentioned Faecal Transplantation – a procedure where feces is collected from a healthy donor and introduced into a patient’s gastrointestinal tract.

The procedure can control an infection called Clostridium difficile by adding healthy bacteria into the recipient’s intestines.

“Patients who used odorless freeze-dried stool from healthy donors had a significant improvement in the health of their gut bacteria in a small study. Similar to Blood Bank and Breast Milk Bank, Stool Banks have also come up now,” he said. These stool banks freeze, preserve, and bank donor stool which later helps in treating hard-to-treat infections and improve the condition of patients.