Extreme Microbe Brewing: the Curse of Auto-Brewery Syndrome

An anonymous reader writes with a story excerpt that may inspire envy in some readers: "Most beer guts are the result of consuming fermented brew, but a new case study describes a rare syndrome that had one man's gut fermenting brew, not consuming it. It's called gut fermentation syndrome or auto-brewery syndrome, and it's 'a relatively unknown phenomenon in Western medicine' according to a study published in July's International Journal of Clinical Medicine. 'Only a few cases have been reported in the last three decades' according to Dr. Barbara Cordell, the dean of nursing at Panola College in Carthage, Texas, and Dr. Justin McCarthy, a Lubbock gastroenterologist, the study's authors." (More at NPR.)

Futurama did it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Futuramas Bender already did it!

Re:guess..

[cervesaebraciator]

Seems the gut flora needs to be way out of balance to get one drunk.

The NPR article noted it occurring after taking antibiotics.

Beer bellies not related to beer

[dutchwhizzman]

There is no causation between beer consumption and a "beer gut". People should keep urban myths like this out of "scientific" oriented texts so people might actually learn the truth. Beer guts exist because people exercise less than they should and have a diet that doesn't match their metabolism and activity pattern. The fact that beer often is part of that diet is a correlation at best, but no causation.

Re:guess..

[Solandri]

Different species of bacteria in your gut form competitive colonies. Antibiotics can wipe out the dominant species, allowing a different species to gain dominance and inhibit the previous dominant species from regaining its original population. Several years ago, my doctor diagnosed my constant stomachaches and vomiting as being caused by a certain type of bacteria which had colonized my stomach. He put me on a treatment of strong antibiotics to wipe them out and allow a more benign gut bacteria to take over. My symptoms went away after the treatment.

Similar things have happened on a macro scale. It's suspected the cod fishery off New England has suffered such a fate after severe overfishing led to its collapse in the 1990s. There have been draconian limits on commercial cod catches for two decades, but no rebound in the cod population. It's suspected that capelin have now taken over as the dominant species in that ecosystem. Capelin used to be eaten by the larger cod. But when overfishing decimated the cod stocks, the capelin were able to grow both in size and population. The theory is the tables have turned now and the capelin are eating the juvenile cod, preventing the cod from reaching the size and numbers which would threaten the dominance of the capelin.

Re:Hangover???

[jamesh]

A hangover is caused by dehydration.

A hangover is caused by drinking alcohol. Being dehydrated is one of the contributing factors to a hangover, and probably the easiest to protect yourself against, but alcohol in excessive quantities is basically poison and if you overdo it you are going to get a hangover even if you keep yourself hydrated.

Drinking more water probably means you end up drinking less alcohol too, which is probably a good thing