The “Auto Brewery Syndrome”

Can alcohol be created by the human body itself — without any drinking? Apparently so.

In an interesting scientific article, two physicians at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore reported that they detected the odor of beer in three of their patients. This was in an isolated hospital setting; there was no access to alcoholic beverages. The doctors had urine samples taken and analyzed by gas chromatography. Result? All three showed the presence of alcohol in their systems. Two of these were then tested for actual blood-alcohol concentration (BAC). One showed a BAC of .043%. The other was .121% — or 1 1/2 times the legal limit for DUI!

“The presence of alcohol in human specimens containing glucose and yeast should come as no surprise,” the two physicians wrote. “Several have made this observation. Under normal circumstances trace amounts of alcohol may be found in the blood; the alcohol is then channeled into an energy pathway by hepatic alcohol dehydrogenase…

“The Japanese report the “auto brewery syndrome” in which they have seen middle aged patients with bowel abnormalities, most often after surgery, who have yeast overgrowth, usually candida, in the G.I. tract and who ferment ingested carbohydrates, producing enough alcohol to result in drunkeness.” Mullholland and Townsend, “Bladder Beer – A New Clinical Observation”, 95 Transactions of the American Clinical Climatological Association 34 (1983).

In other words, the body is manufacturing alcohol by itself — in some cases, enough to become legally intoxicated for purposes of driving — i.e., DUI. This has been confirmed by other studies. Swedish researchers, for example, have found that:

“Increasing evidence has emerged to show that endogenous ethanol does exist, the the concentrations seen have large inter-individual variations. Our results show a markedly skewed distribution of values…The reason for the wide inter-individuaal variation in healthy abstaining individuals is hard to explain.” Jones et al., “Determination of Endogenous Ethanol in Blood and Breath By Gas Chromatography, 18 Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior 267 (1983).

How many folks, with “immaculately conceived” alcohol in their systems, have been arrested and convicted of DUI? These people were innocent, right?

Wrong. In the rush to convict drunk drivers (and with federal pushing), all 50 states have now passed so-called “per se” laws: driving with a BAC of .08% or more. Neither intent, negligence nor even knowledge is required. The crime of “drunk driving” consists of simply having the alcohol in your body.

Even if you’ve had nothing to drink.

If you need to consult with a DUI defense attorney in Southern California, call The Law Offices of Lawrence Taylor at 888-777-3449.  With offices in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and North San Diego counties, the firm has limited its practice to DUI defense exclusively since 1979.