Omar

Well, Serlema means are you dead?

And so Serlema sounds like Erlema.

And that's why they've done it as a sort of a catchy expression.

And it's part of the reason that it's taken off.

The problem began after a man in the US took several courses of antibiotics because of an inflamed prostate.

But it stayed a problem.

The man, a retired Marine, would regularly feel drunk and sleepy.

And, of course, it became hard to function normally.

Even trying to contact someone to deal with the problem, he sounded intoxicated and wasn't taken seriously until his wife rang on his behalf.

That's when the man was diagnosed with something called autobrewery syndrome.

Yes, that is a thing.

The couple had heard that a treatment was being planned for just such an eventuality.

And it was even the case that a study was underway involving gut microbes.

Libby Homan of Harvard Medical School explains what they were up against.

But if the illness sounds unusual, a treatment was in the works involving faecal transplants.

The man was given numerous doses of oral capsules formulated from the faeces of a male donor.

Over time, his own gut bacteria was replaced by the healthier version and he no longer felt drunk.

And in fact, all of this is not so strange after all.

The experts think most of us generate a small amount of alcohol in our guts.

It's only when they overproduce that alcohol that it becomes a problem.