Organs can malfunction with life-threatening consequence.
In a social media post, an emergency doctor in the Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine recalls attending to a 40-year-old man who suffered a cardiac arrest. Dr. Lu Xiao used an electric defibrillator to restore the patient’s heartbeat but to no avail.
The medical team performed extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) on the man and eventually saved his life despite his heart having stopped beating for nearly two days, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
ECMO is a life-support machine that acts as an artificial heart and lung, adding oxygen to and removing carbon dioxide from the blood supply of people whose organs have failed, according to SCMP.
Meanwhile, Mark Mongiardo’s intestines malfunction when yeast inhabiting it overgrows.
When that happens — eaten sugar and carbs getting fermented -- the former teacher and coach from Florida, USA experiences brain fog or delayed reaction, slurred speech, loss of coordination, confusion and other symptoms of drunkenness lasting up to two days, the New York Post (NYP) reported.
“There had been many instances where individuals complained that they smelled alcohol on me when I had not been drinking,” Mongiardo, 43, added, according to NYP.
The intoxication occured even after he quit drinking alcohol in 2018. Upon consulting a doctor, he was diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome (ABS).
ABS is a rare but serious condition where people get drunk even when they haven’t as their bodies ferment the sugar and carbs they’ve eaten, essentially turning bread or cake into alcohol inside their stomach.
Mongiardo is now transitioning to a Paleo-type diet with no carbs, sugar and alcohol to avoid getting drunk.