Turns Out There's a Way to Get Drunk Without Booze

There’s a big downside to enjoying the taste of wine, beer or spirits: if you drink too much, you’re going to end up drunk. At the very least, that’s likely to result in a hangover; it can also lead to making bad decisions with embarrassing or dangerous results. Unfortunately, there’s also a genetic condition that can lead to all of the drawbacks of drinking to excess without the actual drinking.

The condition in question is called auto-brewery syndrome, and it means exactly what its name suggests: without actually drinking any alcohol, the bodies of people affected by this naturally produce alcohol in large enough quantiites to get them intoxicated. Which can be an issue if, for instance, someone is giving off the appearance of being drunk at work when they haven’t actually been drinking.

As Kate Morgan pointed out in a recent article for The New York Times, a growing number of medical professionals are now exploring the effects of auto-brewery syndrome. Morgan reports that a number of recent scholarly papers have cited an array of potential causes, including fungi and a larger-than-normal amount of certain bacteria living in the stomach. The good news is that, as Morgan writes, treatment for many people facing the condition is relatively mild: cutting sugar and carbs from one’s diet and taking medication to treat the fungal side of things.

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It has a longer history than you might think

One of the experts cited in the Times article is Barbara Cordell, whose experience researching her husband’s case of auto-brewery syndrome led to her becoming an expert on the condition. In a 2025 article, she explained one of the challenges of diagnosing and treating it: “[M]ost hospitals and clinical facilities are not set up to conduct these tests, and there are no standardized lab tests or codes for insurance payments.” Presumably, increased attention on it can lead to better treatment for this bewildering ailment.

Meet your guide

Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…