A WOMAN visited hospital seven times complaining of slurred speech and extreme tiredness, but kept being told she was just drunk. Though her breath reeked of booze and she had elevated blood alcohol levels, the 50-year-old insisted that not a drop of alcohol had passed her lips - but it took doctors two years to believe her. It turns out the woman had a rare condition which gave her the appearance of being intoxicated.
Called auto-brewery syndrome , the rare metabolic condition causes fungi in the gut create alcohol through fermentation and makes sufferers seem like they've had a few too many. Medics at the Stony Brook University Hospital in New York, US, have previously shown people with the condition often have a high-sugar, high carbohydrate diet . Researchers say awareness of this syndrome - which has social, legal, and medical consequences - is essential for it to be properly diagnosed and managed.
But only about 20 people globally have officially been diagnosed with the little-known condition. Over two years the woman, from Toronto, visited the emergency department multiple times, complaining of extreme daytime sleepiness and slurred speech. Dr Rahel Zewude, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto who was involved in her care, told CNN : “She visited her family doctor again and again and went to the emergency room seven times over two years.
" The woman had been on several antibiotic courses to treat recurrent urinary tract infections (UTI), along.
