US man can brew alcohol in his own body by eating potatoes

A US man has discovered he suffers from a rare medical condition which makes him drunk by simply consuming a range of everyday foods.

Nick Hess, a 35-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, was diagnosed with auto-brewery syndrome, a rare condition in which eating something as common as a potato could get him drunk.

The condition is caused by an overgrowth of yeast in his intestine, allowing his body to transform carbohydrates and sugary foods into alcohol from within his own stomach.

Three years ago, prior to his diagnosis, he was filmed by wife Karen Daws while intoxicated by something he had eaten earlier.

The video was featured recently on BBC Two’s World’s Weirdest Events.

“What do you feel like?” Ms Daws can be heard asking her husband in the video.

“I feel like uh- like uh- I’m on some hard drug or something,” Mr Hess replied.

“Have you had anything to drink?” she asked.

“Nothing,” Mr Hess said, clearly confused.

Mr Hess’ mysterious condition led to friends and families mistaking him for a secret alcoholic.

“We would be watching television … and by the end of the evening, he would start to be confused, and he would start slurring,” Ms Daw told ABC News.

“And he did smell like he had alcohol on his breath.”

Mr Hess underwent a battery of tests, but doctors were still at a loss to understand what was causing his drunkenness.

In 2011, Mr Hess was arrested by police following a car crash. A breathalyser test put him at over three times the legal limit.

His condition soon began to take a toll on his mental wellbeing.

“It was crushing me. I never left the couch,” Mr Hess said.

Reprieve came at last when Ms Daws stumbled upon an article about auto-brewery syndrome and had her husband tested.

Mr Hess was found to have four times the normal amount of yeast in his intestine.

Four weeks of anti-fungal medication and a carbohydrate-free diet later, Mr Hess’ symptoms had completely vanished. Mr Hess was ecstatic.

“I'm the luckiest person alive. I keep getting better and better, and I love it,” he said.