As of: February 5, 2024, 6:36 p.m
By: Julia Stanton
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Split
If you smell like alcohol, you don't necessarily have to drink a lot.
This is shown by the case of teacher Mark Mongirado from Florida.
(Symbolic image) © Science Photo Library/Imago
A teacher from the USA was often labeled an alcoholic because he always appeared drunk.
In reality, he was suffering from a rare disease.
Tallahassee - Anyone who constantly smells of alcohol and appears drunk will probably have problems in everyday life at some point.
Hardly surprising: After all, people who are drunk are not really sane.
Florida State teacher Mark Mongirado was someone who always seemed drunk.
Only this was not due to excessive alcohol consumption, but rather due to a rare disease: the so-called auto-brewery syndrome, a disease in which sugar is converted into alcohol in the intestines.
Basically his body was brewing beer.
Man suffers from rare home brewer's syndrome: his body brews beer
“I had symptoms of alcohol intoxication, from slurred speech to loss of balance.
And even at social events where I hadn’t been drinking,” Mongirado said in an interview with the English newspaper
DailyMail
.
Patients who suffer from home brewer's syndrome have positive blood alcohol and breath alcohol concentrations, even if it is proven that they have not drunk alcohol.
They smell of alcohol and appear drunk, according to the American health organization National Institutes of Health.
The blood alcohol concentration increases due to the consumption of sugary drinks and foods.
During tests, Mongirado measured 0.14 units per 100 ml of blood, i.e. 1.4 per mille, like that
English newspaper
DailyMail
reported.
Home brewer's syndrome
Home brewer's syndrome was first discovered in 1950.
It is a very rare disease that can occur in adults and children.
The disease is caused by a disruption of the microbiome in the gut.
The syndrome remains underdiagnosed.
Source: National Institutes of Health
This repeatedly led to problems in Mongirado's everyday life.
Colleagues and parents of students accused the teacher of drinking while working.
He was also stopped by the police several times for drunk driving.
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Because of rare syndrome: man loses career and house
For a long time, Mongirado didn't know what the reason behind his symptoms was.
Finally, after years of uncertainty, he received the diagnosis.
At this point, however, he had already lost his career as a teacher and his house because of the illness.
His illness also led to conflicts in his family: “For years my wife thought I was hiding my drinking.
I came home every day and was basically drunk,” Mongirado explained in the interview.
Mongirado now knows how to live with the disease: he says he takes tablets and follows a low-carbohydrate diet.
Meanwhile, in Brazil, a man and his three children recently died of cancer.
They all suffered from a rare syndrome.
(
jus)