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A man with fatty liver disease walked into a Chinese doctor's office. (No, this is not a joke.) The man denied drinking and appeared credible. Nevertheless, the doctor obtained a blood alcohol level, and it was 40 mg/dL — a level at which people can be mildly intoxicated (the legal limit for driving in the U.S. generally is 80 mg/dL). The curious doctor then placed the man on an alcohol-free, high-carbohydrate diet for several days under observation, and his blood alcohol level remained high.
Alcohol-producing strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae were remarkably prevalent in the man's stool. The same result was found in stools of 60% of 43 other people with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). To evaluate the potential of these bacteria to …