This is my personal experience I will be sharing in this blog post. My mother was diabetic since 2009. I’m saying “was” because on 8th December 2022 she left us to heavenly abode. She was in tremendous pain, we all did our best to keep her in comfort and doctors did their best to keep her in best shape. Irrespective of our best and tireless efforts, my dad and I had to decide to take her off the ventilator and let her go in peace. She is now in pain-free world and we bid her adieu with utmost love, respect and hearty prayers.
My aim is not to receive condolences and prayers from you all. She is now in a better place and I’m glad I kept her in comfort for how many ever days I could. My aim here is to spread awareness that how diabetes could be deadly and how it can turn your life upside down. I have come across many diabetic people in my life, but my mother’s case was an eye opener for me and was slightly different too.
Many people are not aware of an auto-immune disease named auto-brewery syndrome. I also didn’t know about it until my mother’s reports showed it. She never touched alcohol in her life and now she is gone.
What is Auto Brewery Syndrome?
Auto-brewery syndrome is also knows an gut fermentation syndrome which is a rare health condition where the individual’s ethanol level increases in their body. Endogenous fermentation grows in the gut of the individual by the bacteria and fungi and it spreads to gastrointestinal, oral and urinary system. Klebsiella bacteria is mainly responsible for this syndrome, when it starts converting the glucose to ethanol.
There are four common yeasts which causes auto brewery syndrome in an individual, such as, Klebsiella, Candida tropicalis, Candida albicans and Torulopsis glabrata. People who are living with Short Bowel Syndrome or Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) are quite likely to be susceptible to this.
Symptoms of Auto Brewery Syndrome
As it is a rare auto-immune disease, its not so easy to detect. Many at times, people who are affected with this syndrome tends to ignore the symptoms and think its a regular thing happening to them. Following are the symptoms:
1. Vomiting
2. Constant fatigue
3. Dizziness
4. Loss of coordination
5. Forgetfulness
6. Mental disorientation or messing up information
7. Irritable bowel symptoms
8. Dehydration and dry mouth
How to find if you have Auto Brewery Syndrome?
As I mentioned earlier, that it’s hard to detect and most of the times, people ignore to detect it. My mother also had this rare syndrome and I felt its her type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney and liver diseases which is causing the above mentioned symptoms. Even, doctors also felt the same initially. People generally never think of the rarest of the things, they tend to examine the common diseases and try to treat it.
But if you want to get yourself checked, then a simple blood test and stool sample test can get the job done for you. The blood tests will examine the carbohydrate intake and glucose levels for the next 24 hours within every 1,2,4,8,16 and 24 hours interval. The stool test is being done to examine the bowel movement and the presence of the Klebsiella bacteria in your bowel. If you are positive then your ethanol level would be quite high and you must consult with your doctor immediately.
In 2020, in the USA, a 61 year old woman was denied for liver transplant as she was detected to be an alcoholic. But after the constant denial from the patient, doctors were compelled to do detail tests and found that her bladder and bowel was producing alcohol within her body. This was a very popular cases as the world media covered it in detail.
Treatment for Auto Brewery Syndrome
Now you all must be thinking, how do we help ourselves if you are down with this rare syndrome. If you are diabetic, then you need to control your sugar/glucose consumption.
a) Sugar-free and gluten-free diet can actually help you.
b) Low carbohydrate diet is very helpful in this condition.
c) You can stop in taking antibiotics with your doctor’s advice if you are taking.
d) Drug and diet therapy can help in the long term too.
e) Probiotic supplements can also help if the patient is at the borderline stage. These supplements can stop the bacteria growth and can reduce the alcohol conversion process.
All these treatment plans were mentioned in the research paper written by Kelly Painter, Barbara J. Cordell and Kristin L. Sticco, published by StatPearls Publishing LLC. It was published in September 2022.
Conclusion
I just can say that, my mother had it and we couldn’t detect it earlier. Diabetes has become a very common lifestyle disease nowadays. Though I have reversed my diabetes but there’s no guarantee that it won’t rise again. If I will not be careful about my lifestyle, then my diabetes level will increase. Auto Brewery Syndrome is not hereditary but it’s always safe to get checked to treat it if needed. I got myself checked, and thankfully I don’t have it. But again, as it is said popularly that, prevention is better than cure.