Tim Reynolds writes:
> One place I worked evaluated a man who claimed alcohol DH deficiency by an
> alcohol tolerance test: similar to a glucose tolerance test but using
> whisky instead of lucozade.
>
> The patient had been arrested for drink driving and claimed he made his
> own alcohol in his gut: things went very well because the alcohol levels
> in his blood increased as expected post-whisky, but contined to increase
> until he was so drunk that he was unable to speak, let alone hide the hip
> flask he had brought with him... -- Prof. Tim Reynolds, Professor of
> Chemical Pathology, Queen's Hospital, Burton-on-Trent, UK.
Just for interests' sake, there is such a thing as endogenous
alcohol production: the yeast cells in the gut of patients suffering
from Candida overgrowth secrete ethanol which they manufacture
from glucose in the diet. This can be demonstrated by measuring
ethanol in the blood of these individuals after a glucose load, at
levels of about 1/1000th of the concentrations associated with
drinking alcoholic beverages. Bacterial overgrowth produces a
somewhat different pattern of alcohol production (butanol,
propanols, etc.). This is one reason why these syndromes make
patients feel so unwell.
Nick Miller,
London
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