wobblegong

Thinkin' about animals....

  • 🐟/🐠/they/them

deviantArt: jWobblegong

*tiny furry cheeps*


If you've never heard of it before, there's a very rare medical problem called "auto-brewery syndrome" in which a patient's guts somehow align a series of extremely improbable stars and start fermenting consumed carbs into alcohol. Such as in the intestines. Just... all on their own. Constantly.

"So the patient starts pooping alcohol?" Nope! It depends where it's located but it often ends up in the bloodstream. Doctors generally find out ABS is afoot when they notice a patient's BAC is up and/or they're displaying symptoms of being drunk 24/7 despite not imbibing.

It's very rare and treatment is amply available– just gotta nuke the fermenting microbe(s) and maybe cut down on carbs until you're fixed– but it's among the most "qhat?" rare health problems I've ever heard of. And now you've heard of it too!


You must log in to comment.

in reply to @wobblegong's post:

Strangely enough I've known someone growing up who had that.
He ended up having serious liver issues (and I assume other damage), because no one noticed it for so long. People generally don't expect a kid to be inexplicably and constantly drunk when they are acting weird.

Wow, what are the odds... yeah, it's a weird and rare enough problem in adults, and a doctor might reasonably at least entertain the thought "were they drinking before this appointment??" for adults. It's much harder to guess you should test a little kid's BAC! Poor person, I wish them well in life/hope things eventually sucked as little as possible.