【Metro】I’m always drunk — but I haven’t had a drop of alcohol

A teetotal woman has a rare condition that means she’s always drunk.

The 50-year-old experienced all of the symptoms you’d would expect after a wild bender, but insisted she had been teetotal for five years, after previously only enjoying a glass of wine during special occasions.

For the woman in the study, antibiotics (taken for a previous infection) had caused fungi to grow in her stomach, and removed helpful bacteria from her gut.

When the fungi began fermenting the sugar and carbohydrates in food she had eaten, a byproduct was alcohol.

‘Our patient had several [emergency department] visits, was assessed by internists and psychiatrists, and was certified under the Mental Health Act before receiving a diagnosis of auto-brewery syndrome, reinforcing how awareness of this syndrome is essential for clinical diagnosis and management.’