In US, man with rare disease has alcohol brewing out of his gut; told to quit drinking

Auto-brewery syndrome (ABS), also called gut fermentation syndrome, is a rare condition in which a fungus grows in the intestines and ferments carbohydrates to produce alcohol. Adam Stump, 40, of Pennsylvania, US, revealed in an interview with Mirror UK that he would become fairly intoxicated and angry despite not drinking alcohol himself.

For Adam Stump, it often seemed to other people, including his wife, that he was part of this tradition. Stump, a pastor in Pennsylvania, seemed to get drunk with alarming frequency, slurring his speech, berating those around him and blacking out entirely. The church pastor has even been accused by his wife of being a secret alcoholic because he keeps coming home drunk, when actually he has a rare ailment in his stomach that transforms carbs to wine.

"At the start, Jana didn't believe I hadn't been drinking. She thought I was sneaking it somewhere. I had to convince her that I hadn't been drinking. It was terrible for her to think that I was living a double life. When I was diagnosed, she collapsed and said she couldn't take any more stress," Stump explained.

Then she realised something was amiss when Adam blew into a breathalyser and was found to be over the legal drink-drive limit despite the fact that they had spent the day together and he hadn't had a single drink. The consequences of ABS, according to Stump, are similar to being hungover and inebriated at the same time. Stump was forced to take three months off work due to severe withdrawal symptoms, which included stomach aches and diarrhoea.

Doctors diagnosed Adam's unusual medical condition in Feb 2021

Doctors confirmed that he had the unusual medical illness earlier this year, and he has been receiving therapy since then. In February 2021, tests confirmed Adam had the unusual disease after repeated trips to perplexed doctors who felt he was a covert drinker and asked him to stop drinking. To treat his ailment, he has cut out practically all carbohydrates and now eats just meat, cheese, and eggs. He also takes antibiotics.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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