Does the human body make alcohol?

Answer 1

Alcohol occurs naturally from yeast converting sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide.

Endogenous ethanol production is the term for alcohol produced naturally within the body. Depending on the diet and other factors, up to about one ounce of pure alcohol can be produced within the body each day. That amount equals almost two standard drinks of beer, wine or liquor.

There is an unusual condition involving an abnormal growth of yeast in the gut that can result in large quantities of alcohol being produced and absorbed by the body. This is most common in people who have been on long-term antibiotics or immunosuppressant drugs. Other than that, any quantities produced would not be large, and they would still technically be produced by the gut's biota, not by the body itself.

Readings on endogenous ethanol production:

• Chuhrova, M. and Timofeyev, I. Synthesis of endogenous ethanol during treatment of alcoholic dependence. European Psychiatry, 2002, 17(1), 191.
• Jones, A.W. Concentration of endogenous ethanol in blood and CSF. Acta Neurologica Scandinavica, 1994, 89(2), 159-150.
• Lester, D. The concentration of apparent endogenous ethanol.

  Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 1962, 23, 17-25.

• Logan, B.K and Jones, A.W. Endogenoius ethanol production in a child with short gut syndrome. Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, 2003, 36(3), 419-420.
• Logan, B.K. and Jones, A.W. Endogenous ethanol "auto-brewery syndrome" as a drunk-driving defence challenge. Medicine, Science and the Law, 2000, 40(3), 106-215.
• McManus, I.R., Contag, A.O., and Olson,R.E. Characterization of endogenousethanol in the mammal. Science, 1960, 131, 3393.
• Nikolaenko, V.N. Maintenance of homeostasis of endogenous ethanol as a method for the therapy of Alcoholism. Bulletin of Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2001, 131(3), 231-233.
• Ostrovsky, Y.M. Endogenous ethanol - its metabolic, behavioral and biomedical significance. Alcohol, 1986, 3(4), 239-247.
• Perminova, N., Chuhrova, M., and Timofeyev, I. Endogenous ethanol and microbe associations at Patients with alcoholic dependence. European Psychiatry, 2002, 17 (Supp. 1) 213.
• Phillips, M. and Greenberg, J. Detection of endogenous ethanol and other compounds in the breath by gas chromatography with on-column concentration of sample. Analytical Biochemistry, 1987, 163(1), 165-169.