Strange but true: with this rare disease, you get drunk from a glass of soft drink
Getting drunk from a glass of cola, a cheese sandwich or a homemade cookie: you would think that’s impossible. But in Willem’s case, it is. He suffers from a rare disease that causes his blood alcohol level, without drinking a single drop of alcohol, to equal that of 10 (!) glasses of beer.
In an interview with AD, Willem explains how he discovered that he had this rare disease. After having dinner at his parents’ house one evening, he comes home and everything seems fine. Later that evening, he gets in the car and sets off, although he has no memory of it whatsoever, Willem says. That evening things go horribly wrong. Swerving, he hits two cars. No one except Willem is injured—he has to go to hospital with a concussion. There, his blood alcohol level is measured at 2.34, equivalent to 10 glasses of beer.
Being drunk without having drunk
For a long time, no one believed him when he said he really hadn’t drunk anything. Willem decides to tell his story to a friend who is also a professor of gastroenterology and hepatology at the academic hospital in Amsterdam. Coincidentally, the professor had recently discussed the rare disease with a colleague. After consulting each other, they decide to examine Willem.
Auto-brewery syndrome
For the examination, Willem has to drink half a litre of glucose water on an empty stomach. And what do you know? After a few hours, the alcohol level in his blood has already risen considerably. That same evening, a blood alcohol level of 1.2 is measured—twice the legal limit—and Willem becomes the first person in the Netherlands to be diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome.
The treatment
Despite everything, Willem says that he is doing well now. To prevent himself from getting tipsy from what he eats, because it is not only caused by non-alcoholic drinks, he now follows a low-carbohydrate diet. Doctors are meanwhile working hard on a treatment plan, so Willem can hopefully soon eat a regular sandwich with a glass of milk beside it again without getting tipsy.
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