A 61-year-old woman in Pennsylvania, USA, who found herself urinating on alcohol, which her body produces without having drunk, is the first in the world to have a so-called “urine alcohol syndrome” or “bladder alcohol fermentation syndrome,” reports Athens Voice.

This disorder is caused by a micro-organism (fungus) in the bladder, which causes fermentation in the bladder sugars thus producing alcohol, which is then detected in the urine in significant quantities. The woman, who remains anonymous, suffers from uncontrolled diabetes and cirrhosis of the liver and was waiting for a liver transplant, until tests at the hospital revealed too much alcohol in her urine.

Although the woman denied drinking, she was removed from the organ transplant waiting list and asked to have alcohol dependency treatment first. Further tests, however, found alcohol (ethanol) in the urine but not in her blood, which surprised many doctors.

The researchers, led by Assistant Professor of Pathology Dr Kenichi Tamama

 of the University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Hospital, who published the relevant issue in the American medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine, found that it was being caused by Candida, a common human microbiota which is related to brewer’s yeast.

Because the woman’s urine contained too much sugar due to her diabetes, it was found that the fungus was using an abundance of glucose (sugars) to make alcohol in large quantities (up to 800 mg /dL), creating a mini-brewery in the patient. 

In the past, some instances of alcohol self-production have been found in the body, in which fungi in the intestine convert carbohydrates into alcohol, which is then absorbed and detected in the blood. This makes these people feel drunk without drinking. However, in this case the woman didn’t feel any effects of the alcohol due to it being produced in her bladder and not entering her bloodstream.

She has since been placed back on the liver transplant waiting list.