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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.)
Futuramas Bender already did it!
it's not the gut but the critters living in the gut. Lactic acid bacteria can ferment starch into alcohol and so can yeasts. Seems the gut flora needs to be way out of balance to get one drunk.
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.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
In Nigeria people have been eating beetle larvae for centuries. Anthropologists have explained this as a rich nutrient source which could help mankind in the future. Now it turns out the little buggers (weevils) have an ethanol-content of more than 6 %! So, food or protein my ass. Those Nigerians were just getting some cheap booze!
The authors, Ogbonda & Kiin-Kabari (2013, http://www.academicjournals.org/SRE/PDF/pdf2013/11Feb/Ogbonda%20and%20Kiin-Kabari.pdf) write "Result will help to explain the observed intoxicating (auto-brewery syndrome) property of the larva".
Life is fantastic.
Cop: You just ran a red and you're weaving like a Sarejevan shopper. How much have you been drinking?
You: Nothing, honest. But I did eat two donuts and a large muffin.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Most drunk drivers can drive as well as most sober drivers when they get a DUI. The legal limits is really too low for someone who is accustom to drinking. Cops do things like paint white dots on the treads of tires on cars parked at or near bars then make something up to pull them over later when they see the streak rolling down the road. They also sit outside bars and watch people walking to their cars and pull over the people who display "drunken" behavior.
A DUI is mostly about money and little more. There are groups who claim it is about safety and to them, it likely is, but to government and cops, it's a revenue thing.
A curious thought! Here is the WSJ's bit on it. I'm somewhat skeptical that the process accused could produce ketone bodies to the same magnitude; keep in mind that ketosis occurs when the body starts burning fat because it's starving and/or exercising. Even with the minuscule amounts of water being consumed by lipolysis and the citric acid cycle, there's still a lot more water in a live human body than in a hunk of pork.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
Bonus: This theory explains those crazy emails they keep sending me.
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