Speaker 0:  imagine getting hit with a massive hangover or failing a breathalyzer test when you haven't touched a single drop of alcohol. today, we're diving into a bizarre and often misunderstood world of auto brewery syndrome, a medical condition where your own body turns a slice of pizza into a pint of beer. so new research has finally pinpointed the exact bacteria responsible, and the solution might be more biological than you think. the auto brewery syndrome, abs, is a rare condition where microbes in your gut ferment carbohydrates into ethanol, essentially getting you drunk on food. it's a massive deal because it often leads to false dui rest and severe social stigma, but a breakthrough study from nature microbiology has finally identified the specific bacteria culprits like e. coli and k. pneumonii?

Speaker 1:  i don't know. i didn't look up how to pronounce them.

Speaker 0:  okay, john. how are you?

Speaker 1:  sorry. i was just planning on skipping over them. so, i want this. but, again, it's it's not a good thing to have this. so, yeah, it's a gut fermentation syndrome, it's also referred to as. and it produces intoxicating amounts of alcohol without external intake. now this just talks to a larger kind of, environment environment thing about your gut and how critical your gut plays a part in everything. and they're pretty much calling your gut the second brain, or another brain. but research studied has identified specific gut bacteria and biological pathways that are responsible for the excessive ethanol production in abs. so, while traditional case reports focused on yeast, the newest work highlighted bacterial fermentation as a major contributor. so some strains can convert dietary carbohydrates into ethanol via these classic fermentation pathways. so in these pathways, microbes convert sugars into pyruvate and then into aceto acetaldehyde and ethanol, and it releases carbon dioxide as a byproduct. so when it's present in high numbers or paired with metabolic imbalances, that's what leads to the abs that you're getting. so why it happens is it's, gut dysbiosis which is an imbalance in the microbial community of the intestines. so factors such as high carbohydrate diets, prolonged antibiotic use, metabolic diseases like diabetes or prior intestinal surgery, and impaired lever functions, that can all promote the overgrowth of ethanol producing microbes. so note to self, eat lots of carbs, take lots of antibiotics, and drink a lot. kidding. but, this is also scary, though, for people that don't know. i know i play light about it, but this is scary for someone that doesn't know. i've i've actually seen in some tv shows they've done this. but to to to to not know that this is happening to you must be super scary and frightening.

Speaker 0:  so this opens the door to an interesting, exciting development called fecal transplant. transplant. so fecal microbiotic transplant as a potential permanent cure by resetting the gut's ecosystem. the study indicated a detailed case study of one patient with persistent auto brewery syndrome who underwent fecal transplant, auto, fecal transplant, auto brewery syndrome treatment. the first transplant after one treatment, other treatments failed. the patient received processed fecal matter material from a healthy donor. the goal was introduced to introduce beneficial bacteria that would outcompete the ethanol producing strain. so results were dramatic. the patient experienced a market improvement in abs syndromes following the transplant. microbiome analysts showed reduced levels of fermented bacteria and decreased ethanol production in stool samples. relapse and treatment. unfortunately, symptoms returned months later, and analysts revealed that ethanol producing bacteria strains had, increased again along with fermentation related metabolic activity. second transplant, the doctors modified their approach using a different antibiotic pretreatment before the second fmt. this time, the results lasted much longer. the patient remained symptom free for over sixteen months at the time of the study publication. so, you know, it's interesting that we have it, and we are almost already potentially have a treatment slash cure.

Speaker 1:  yeah. but the thing is this is a rare disease. so the rarity of the syndrome, this means that most physicians are never gonna see a case, which added to the diagnostic challenging the challenges, and also the social stigma, which, again, i can't again, i know i played line about it early, but, i can't believe i can't even imagine what people must go through who have this because it's so rare, and it's difficult. so, it's it's probably rare to get a a proper diagnosis right away or quickly. so, yeah. it's still interesting, though.

Speaker 0:  yeah. currently, fmt treatments are currently reserved for severe clinical cases, but they're slowly expanding. and i think as they codify this and understand the treatment and it's worked over more and more and more and they, passes fda and all that stuff, and that's not fda, but because it's not a drug, but it's a treatment. i don't know. whatever passes all those things, you'll have people advertising. you'll have more awareness. you'll have doctors trained on it because it's a new thing, a new treatment that they can, you know, make money off of. so i get it that right now, it's very rare and not being diagnosed. but because this treatment is coming out, i think it'll be diagnosed in a lot more people within a couple years faster because of this. so there are some social stigmas, and there are legal hurdles. courts are slow to accept that my gut did it as a valid response. so, people are probably gonna have to start testing for this, or it'll become more popular for duis that they go to doctors afterwards to test for this and see what happens. so what so is the internal brewery a terrifying medical glitch or just the ultimate proof what we eat? if you ever felt drunk after a big bowl of pasta, you might not be crazy. you might just have a very busy gut. let me know in the comments if you think this should be a standard test for dui cases, and i'll see you in the next one.