Find an avid beer-lover and they’ll woefully speak of their love and hate relationship with their beer-belly. Extreme beer-bellies are often the trigger point that forces one to switch to a healthy lifestyle if one wants to continue gulping down several pints of beer. But the kind of belly this American is sure to make many beer enthusiasts jealous until they discover the reason behind it.
This unnamed American guy brews his own alcohol, but in his own beer-belly. Quite confusing, right? Let me help you here. According to Mail Online, this man has a rare medical condition in which his body brews it’s ‘own’ beer. This might sound fun but isn’t.
It came to light after the 46-year-old builder was caught by the cops for drunk driving. The problem was that he was completely sober at the time. The builder hadn’t orally consumed beer denied the charges. However, his breathalyser test showed that he had consumed ‘10 alcoholic beverages.’
He was then taken to a hospital where the medics and police refused to believe him even after his repeated pleas. According to Metro, the man was only a social drinker. But unbeknownst to him, he’d started fermenting his own seemingly endless supply of alcohol in his gut after he completed a course of antibiotics prescribed after a thumb injury. He told the hospital staff that he has been experiencing uncharacteristic personality changes, including depression, ‘brain fog’, confusion, aggressive behaviour, and memory loss since then.
After being discharged from the hospital (where the medics thought he had a drinking problem), he sought treatment at a clinic in Ohio where his stool sample showed the presence of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (also known as brewer’s yeast) and a related fungus. The yeast helps in beer brewing and winemaking and is also used in baking due to its ability to ferment carbohydrates. He was diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome (ABS). It’s a condition whereby the stomach produces its own in-house brew with the excessive amount of yeast that it contains.
Fortunately, after months of seeking treatment conducted by experts, he was able to lead a normal life. “Approximately 1.5 years later, he remains asymptomatic and has resumed his previous lifestyle, including eating a normal diet while still checking his breath alcohol levels sporadically,” said researchers from Richmond University Medical Centre in their research report about ABS.
ABS is a rarely diagnosed medical condition in which the body starts converting sugar or starch into alcohol. What’s worse is that no one believes that you are not inebriated. On a lighter note, he can get his kick just by a pizza or pay for beer at a pub like the rest of us.