this is a chapter right out of your
unluckiest things that ever happened to
be book a story you'll no doubt be
regaling people with for the rest of
your life
one night you're driving down the
highway as happy as a hamster with a new
running wheel because you just had a
great first date then you notice the
dreaded red and blue lights flashing in
your mirror you pull over not concerned
because hey your car is in tip-top shape
you weren't speeding in your law-abiding
citizen the cop approaches the car and
after some questions says step out of
the vehicle police he thinks you look
loaded up on booze and wants you to blow
into a machine you're just happy that's
all you haven't had a drop nada
you haven't been anywhere near alcohol
and you blow positive what's going on
you wonder before we get to the real
story of when this happened let's first
tell you a bit about Brett's test
devices aka breathalyzers that are used
by the cops to check if you're driving
under the influence when you drink booze
that booze gets into your bloodstream
but the machine isn't testing your blood
since blood testing in the street would
feel kind of invasive the alcohol
tainted blood passes through the lungs
and that can come out of the mouth as
vapor called breath alcohol those
machines are equipped to detect
microscopic alcohol molecules and then
estimate something called your blood
alcohol concentration often abbreviated
to BAC
with a low BAC you might appear to be
normal so the cops might be on a hunch
when it's a bit higher you might
experience mild euphoria such as you
were feeling after that first date as
some of you will know when it's high you
might be incoherent and basically stupid
higher still and you might just pass out
there are different kinds of machines
but they all have a margin of error
meaning that they can be wrong and you
could perhaps below a false positive
you might also blow a false negative
some reasons they could be wrong include
the device not being calibrated properly
or even some leftover booze that's still
in your mouth even though you haven't
had enough to be over the limit but what
we're talking about today is someone
blowing positive for over the limit and
not having touched a single drop of
booze there are a lot of myths out there
which say things such as toothpastes
might make you blow over but they're all
just myths but the experts say products
that contain alcohol could affect the
test stuff such as mouthwash and breath
fresheners smoking might even make a
small difference and according to one
paper we found some cold and flu liquid
mixtures and other medications that
could also affect the result
there is a very slight chance that some
candies containing menthol could affect
the result and then something like wine
vinegar could also do the same the
chance of you blowing over due to
consuming these things though one
researcher said it's pretty much
inconceivable but our story is much
stranger than someone blowing over
because of any of these reasons the cops
in this case might rightly arrest the
guy on suspicion of drunken driving but
the guy was also right in that he hadn't
had one single drink this was no
malfunction of the Machine and he hadn't
just downed a glass of mouthwash smoked
a load of cigarettes and then decided
the two packets of menthol candies he
actually was drunk even though he hadn't
been drinking the cops and he were both
right let us explain in this case it
happened in 2019 the 46 year old British
man was driving in his car when he got
pulled over by the cops the media didn't
give his name so let's call him Danny
drunk Danny the police must have noticed
that this guy looked like he was buzzing
and so asked the man to take a test he
refused but then he was arrested on
suspicion of drunk driving the guy was
subsequently sent to a nearby hospital
and guess what it turned out that his
BAC was twice over the legal limit
the man protested his innocence and
while he was right in saying he hadn't
had a drink he was unequivocally twice
over the limit and Danny isn't alone
there are cases of this happening in the
USA and beyond it must be very
frustrating for the non drinking drunks
when they're told they've broken the law
in 2015 in New York a woman was pulled
over and she blew four times over the
limit and she hadn't touched a drop
either like Danny she wasn't eventually
found guilty of any wrongdoing for the
same reasons he wasn't in Danny's case
some researchers found out what had
happened it turns out that he had a
weird condition that can make him drunk
without him imbibing in booze Danny
could get drunk on life those
researchers discovered that he had a
certain kind of fungi inside his
digestive system and this was turning
his carbohydrates into booze he had his
own fermentation system and he could get
drunk all by himself this is a very rare
condition known as auto-brewery syndrome
it might not sound terrible getting
drunk for free but a woman who wrote a
book called my gut makes alcohol said it
was just an awful thing to happen since
feeling all weird without having had a
drink can really discombobulated a
person it can wreck relationships get a
person into trouble
and cause health problems there was a
case in 2011 in the US which involved a
man who had to start taking antibiotics
because of an injury then something
strange happened to him he began getting
aggressive toward people and started
forgetting stuff the guy didn't know
what was happening to him and he looked
for help after getting arrested for
drunk driving a researcher who worked on
this case said this about him everybody
thought he was a liar that he was a
closet drinker imagine not drinking and
people accusing you of being loaded with
this condition you can even smell like
booze two tests were performed in which
the man was asked to eat carbohydrate
heavy meals and then researchers watched
as he suddenly got drunk and his BAC
shot up he was told to stay off the
heavy carbs but seems he didn't and at
one point he had a nasty fall which
resulted in a brain bleed
he liked pizza it was reported and the
bread was not good for him in the end he
was given antifungal medications and
other drugs but the media reports he
still skipped meals now and again just
in case he got suddenly very drunk
it seems the course of antibiotics for
his injuries said his condition off with
those pills altering his fungal growth
he became the personification of a home
brewery kit the independent newspaper in
the UK reported another guy in the US he
had to drop out of college because he
was vomiting and having terrible
headaches he'd slur is words and have
bad hand-eye coordination he got drunk
on nothing and had hangovers on nothing
he also got a DUI charge but he was
convicted he did appeal this though his
wife actually didn't believe him and
started recording him to see if he was
having a sneaky drink she then realized
he was not drinking at all the man told
the media she would watch me wake up and
sit on the couch from the moment I woke
up to the moment I went to sleep and
progressively get more and more drunk in
his case it took years for doctors to
discover he had auto-brewery syndrome
one researcher said she works with 200
people in the US who had this condition
but another 500 folks from around the
world have contacted her about it she
said it really is no fun at all people
could be up to five times over the legal
limit with it and it could happen so
often that there is a potential for
alcohol poisoning and in the long term
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease she
said people might not exactly feel drunk
but suddenly have a change in mood and
become delirious depressed and dizzy she
also believes that a lot more people are
living with
that than we think some people just
don't know what's making them feel so
crazy at times one guy had it for 20
years and didn't know would you want to
be afflicted with this condition we
still haven't decided for ourselves but
tell us in the comments now go watch the
only man to survive two nuclear bombs
thanks for watching and as always don't
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you next time