Hello and happy Friday, readers!
Let’s end the week on a truly bizarre note. Researchers writing in the journal BMJ Open Gastroenterology tell the tale of a North Carolina man with an extremely unfortunate medical condition. It’s called “auto-brewery syndrome” (ABS), or gut fermentation syndrome, and it caused him to create alcohol in his gut from plain old carbs and sugar and then act drunk.
Yes, you read that right. The 46-year-old man was pulled over for a DWI, and police and hospital personnel refused to believe him when he told them he hadn’t had a drop to drink. At one point, his blood alcohol level was 0.2, on par with a blackout for many people.
It sounds amusing until you consider the very serious ramifications: Dangerous situations when driving, awkward and alienating family interactions, troubles at one’s job just because you had a slice of pizza or drank a soda at lunch.
As it turns out, the condition started when the man was treated with antibiotics for a complex thumb injury. This altered the state of his gut microbiome and led to the peculiar condition, caused by yeast which was fermenting carbs in his stomach. It was only after seeing specialists at the Richmond University Medical Center in New York that the man was put on effective antifungal therapies to get his gut back to normal.
The thing is, this condition may actually be more common than you’d think, according to the researchers, who dubbed it “probably an underdiagnosed medical condition.”
Read on for the day’s news, and have a wonderful weekend.
Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
DIGITAL HEALTH
Rats can drive tiny cars, and it makes them feel less anxious. University of Richmond in Virginia researchers have found a rather charming characteristic of rodents, aka New York's second most populous denizens: They like to drive. Yes, rats are able to operate tiny vehicles, and what's more, doing so actually reduces their anxiety levels. “The rat is an appropriate model for the human brain in many ways since it has all the same areas and neurochemicals as the human brain — just smaller, of course,” said behavioral neuroscience professor Kelly Lambert in a statement. “Although humans are more complex than rats, we look for ‘universal truths’ about how brains interact with environments to maintain optimal mental health.” (Washington Post)
INDICATIONS
Trump reportedly set to nominate Dr. Stephen Hahn as next FDA commish. President Donald Trump will reportedly nominate Dr. Stephen Hahn of the world renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to be the next Food and Drug Administration commissioner next week. Hahn is the chief medical executive at MD Anderson and would take over for acting commissioner Ned Sharpless, who is the former director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). (Endpoints News)
REQUIRED READING
Meet Citi's Jane Fraser, Who May Become the First Woman to Run a Wall Street Bank, by Anne Sraders
How Dick's Sporting Goods Is Building a Post-Gun Future, by Phil Wahba
The HENRYs - High Earners, Not Rich Yet - May Finally Be Having Their Moment, by Shawn Tully
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