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| Belgian beer worker has drink-drive charge thrown out because he suffers from auto-brewery syndrome, which causes his body to produce alcohol | ||
| 2024-04-24 | ||
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Belgian brewery worker had a drink-driving charge against him dismissed in court on Monday after doctors found he has a rare condition that causes his body to produce alcohol. The 40-year-old suffers from auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), which causes carbohydrates in his stomach to be fermented, increasing ethanol levels in his blood and resulting in signs of intoxication. His lawyer, Anse Ghesquiere, said it was an 'unfortunate coincidence' that her client works at a brewery, but three doctors who independently examined him confirmed he suffered from ABS. The court recognised that factors unforeseen by law applied to the man's case and acquitted him of the charge. Currently, only some 20 people globally have been officially diagnosed with the condition, but Ghesquiere said the number of cases is underestimated. The brewer ended up in court after police in April 2022 pulled his vehicle over and registered him giving a breathalyser reading of 0.91 milligrammes of alcohol per litre, and again a month later when his breath contained 0.71 milligrammes. The legal limit in Belgium is 0.22 milligrammes per litre of air exhaled, which corresponds to a blood alcohol level of 0.5 grammes per litre. Previously, in 2019, the man had received a fine and a driving licence suspension despite protesting that he had not drunk any alcohol. He was apparently unaware of his syndrome before his latest run-in with police. Ghesquiere said she and her client were awaiting formal notification of the acquittal. She noted that the prosecution service had a month to lodge an appeal if it wished to do so. The man meanwhile was following a carbohydrate-light diet to avoid his stomach producing more alcohol. At his initial court appearance in March, the prosecutor requested he avoid any alcoholic beverages, the Belgian state television channel VRT reported. Other ABS sufferers have undergone strange medical procedures to cure the condition. In 2020, another Belgian man underwent tests after he felt sporadically drunk over a two-month window, even though he had not touched a drop of booze. He was diagnosed by doctors at the University Hospital Ghent with ABS and was also prescribed a low-carb diet, but this did nothing to prevent his condition, leading doctors to attempt a drastic course of action. They resorted to performing a faecal transplant, which sees a healthy faecal sample taken from a donor and implanted into the patient's gut. Faecal transplants are becoming increasingly common to replace ineffective or faulty bacteria in the body with microbes which work properly. It is an established procedure which is also being investigated for its use in helping people infected with C. diff as well as cancer patients. This is done either directly into the colon, or through tubes that go up a person's nose, down the throat and then into the gastrointestinal tract.
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| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 I have sometimes felt drunk at times. Then I realized reality is F'ed Up. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2024-04-24 09:15 |