Posted on 04/01/2023 7:20:42 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
A Florida man spent years wondering why colleagues and coworkers questioned his alcohol consumption. He said he hadn't been drinking — especially with him working as a teacher and basketball coach — but was called into the principal's office on and off for several years.
Mark Mongiardo, 40, told TODAY he worked more than 12 hours a day and credited his exhaustion and behavior changes to that.
"I thought that there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t exactly sure what," Mongiardo, 40, of Florida, told TODAY.com. "I just thought I was tired all the time. My wife has on numerous occasions said I wasn’t acting right."
Mongiardo told TODAY he'd been arrested twice within six months for DWI even though he hadn't picked up a single drink. His wife began to worry that he was drinking in secret.
After a couple of Google searches, Mongiardo and his wife believed they found a diagnosis — auto-brewery syndrome.
"I had all the signs and symptoms of drinking even before she smelled me. So, for years, she thought I was hiding drinking and I would come home each day and I would basically be drunk," he told TODAY. "I had symptoms of being intoxicated from slurring speech to balance issues. And this happened even at social events where I had not been drinking."
Mongiardo struggled with finding employment due to the pending felony charges, so he had to sell his New Jersey home to move in with his wife's family in Long Island, NY.
He finally found a doctor who was able to test him for the auto-brewery syndrome, which was turning the food he consumed into alcohol.
As Mongiardo struggled to find work, he became a licensed real estate agent in New York and moved south to Florida before the pandemic hit. He told TODAY he monitors his BAC at home because he worries about driving with his children.
What is auto-brewery syndrome?
According to the National Insitute of Health, auto-syndrome is a gut fermentation syndrome condition in which ethanol is produced through fermentation by fungi or bacteria in the gastrointestinal system. Patients with auto-brewery syndrome present with many of the signs and symptoms of alcohol intoxication while denying an intake of alcohol and often report a high-sugar, high-carbohydrate diet.
The production of endogenous ethanol occurs in minute quantities as part of normal digestion, but when fermenting yeast or bacteria become pathogenic, extreme blood alcohol levels may result.
They make ethanol not methanol. methanol would kill them and/or make them go blind.
There was an episode of Doc Martin with some Village bloke whom had this issue. Of course everyone thought he was a drunk until Marty figured it out.
“Mongiardo and his wife believed they found a diagnosis — auto-brewery syndrome.”
Can’t hurt to try that line the next time I get pulled over.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it
If you have the syndrome or not you are still responsible to make sure you are not under the influence when you are behind the wheel.
I had to explain to someone that just because the medication they were taking was prescribed by a doctor did not mean that it was ok to drive while they were taking it.
Your job is to make sure you are sober before you take the wheel.
Boy, you’re not much fun...but obviously you’re right.
I figure I will wait until just before the heat death of the universe to hear them admit I am right. :)
I’ve heard of this. A guy was always intoxicated even though he never drank.
Worked bars & restaurants as a kid - got pulled over or caught in a roadblock several times, driving home after 2AM. Reeking of cigarettes and alcohol from working the bar, but sober as a judge.
The first time he became suspicious was when his urine sample had an olive in it.
CC
I guessed right! I was thinking gut fermentation or yeast overgrowth before I read the article.
I had this about ten years ago. I cured it by taking Diflucan for a few weeks, followed by probiotics for several months.
***a gut fermentation syndrome***
I remember reading of this over fifty years ago. People who did not drink alcohol could get drunk as a skunk just by eating a regular meal. Either LIFE or LOOK had an article on it.
I think a deficiency of potassium or calcium can contribute to it. People with excess vitamin d have more calcium in urine and less in the intestine.
LOL, I like it!
Those two do NOT look like the nubile sun kissed maidens who stomp grapes in the movies. :)
Real situation, real illness.
Worked with a guy that ended up having it.
Too much craft beer can trigger it, btw.
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