Woman’s Body Beats DWI Arrest As Her Body Brews Its Own Alcohol
An upstate New York woman has evaded drunk driving charges against her by presenting to the court an unusual defense case: her body brews its own alcohol.
She discovered she has a rare condition called “auto-brewery syndrome,” in which her digestive system converts ordinary food into alcohol, and her alcohol blood content is regularly above the legal limit for driving in the state, her attorney Joseph Marusak said in interviews this week.
A town judge in the Buffalo suburb of Hamburg dismissed the drunken-driving charges this month after Marusak presented a doctor’s research showing the woman had the previously undiagnosed condition in which high levels of yeast in her intestines fermented high-carbohydrate foods into alcohol. Marusak declined to name his client, citing medical confidentiality laws.
Judge dismisses New York woman’s DWI because her body brews its own alcohol. https://t.co/ifyPeQ94ps pic.twitter.com/Fnx3H5trn7
— Slate (@Slate) January 2, 2016
Reportedly, the 35-year-old schoolteacher was pulled over near Buffalo in October 11, 2014, for driving erratically and appearing intoxicated. She was given the breathalyzer test, which registered 0.33 percent blood alcohol level, more than four times the legal limit. The legal blood alcohol level to be driving in the New York state is 0.08 percent. The arresting officer reported she had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and failed several field sobriety tests.
Experts say such a disorder probably does exist, but it is an extremely rare condition. In 2013, the head of nursing and health sciences at Panola College in Texas, Barbara Cordell, documented the case of a 61-year-old man who had frequent bouts of unexplained drunkenness for years before being diagnosed with an intestinal overabundance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or brewer’s yeast, the same yeast used to make beer.
Marusak contacted Cordell for help with his client, who insisted she hadn’t had more than three drinks in the six hours before she was pulled over for erratic driving.
Cordell referred Marusak to Dr. Anup Kanodia of Columbus, Ohio, who eventually diagnosed the woman with auto-brewery syndrome and prescribed a low-carbohydrate diet that brought the situation under control.
Their digestive systems are tiny breweries & can survive blood alcohol concentrations that ordinarily cause coma https://t.co/Rr6arrjyms
— C. Michael Gibson MD (@CMichaelGibson) January 7, 2016
“I hired two physician assistants and a person trained in Breathalyzers to watch her and take blood alcohol levels over a 12-hour period and had it run at the same lab used by the prosecution,” said Marusak. “Without any drinks, her blood level was double the legal limit at 9:15 a.m., triple the limit at 6 p.m. and more than four times the legal limit at 8:30 p.m., which correlates with the same time of day that the police pulled her over.”
“At the end of the day, she had a blood-alcohol content of.36 without drinking any alcoholic beverages,” Marusak added. He said the woman also bought a breathalyzer and blew into it every night for 18 days, registering around.20 every time.
Also known as gut-fermentation syndrome, this rare medical condition can occur when abnormal amounts of gastrointestinal yeast convert common food carbohydrates into ethanol. The process is believed to take place in the small intestine, and is vastly different from the normal gut fermentation in the large intestine that gives our bodies energy.
First described in 1912 as “germ carbohydrate fermentation,” it was studied in the 1930s and 40s as a contributing factor to vitamin deficiencies and irritable bowel syndrome. Cases involving the yeast Candida albicans and Candida krusei have popped up in Japan, and Cordell told she estimates about 100 people have auto-brewery in the United States. Dozens of cases have been reported in Japan, where about 85 percent of the population has a gene that slows the natural breakdown of alcohol in their bodies.
But the skeptics suspect that most people getting DWI arrests get them in the normal way, by consuming too much alcohol. They say that it would take a huge amount of yeast to produce the quantities of alcohol to get you intoxicated.
“At first glance, it seems like a get-out-of-jail-free card,” said Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University. “But it’s not that easy. Courts tend to be skeptical of such claims. You have to be able to document the syndrome through recognized testing.”
Even though the Hamburg judge dismissed the case against his client, Marusak says it’s not over yet. “I’ve heard the DA’s office says they plan to appeal. I’ll know more by the middle of January.”
Assistant Erie County District Attorney Christopher Belling said the case is being reviewed, and his office doesn’t comment on open cases.
In the meantime, Marusak’s client is treating her condition with anti-fungal medications and a yeast-free diet with absolutely no sugar, no alcohol and very low carbs. She is currently free to drive without restrictions.
[Image via Shutterstock]
