I recently attended a medical in order to obtain a drivivg licence only to be refused on the grounds that the level of alcohol in my blood was too high. It was at least months since my last drink before the test. Can you explain why this should be ?

I have been trying to find what it is called.
I read an article on it a little over a year ago and haven't been able to find anything since but what the article said is something to do with how your body converts sugar and something about it fermenting to give false dui readings. If I remember right it said it is more of a problem with certain women.

I know the time is not the same as your situation, but cops make you do those balance test and other things first to wait until the blood alcohol rises. The longer they wait to take your levels the higher it will be. But I have never heard of your situation... crazy!

NH4U:

I've heard of your reason too. I too was trying to remember what the cause was, but I believe it was benign.

Diabetics producing Ketones will generate false positives though. See Re: How does diabetes effect blood alcohol test. (http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2000-06/961007618.Bc.r.html)

Check for other symptoms of diabetes and by all means have it looked at by a medical professional.

This link is actually pretty good:

Blood Alcohol - Yahoo! Health (http://health.yahoo.com/addiction-symptoms/blood-alcohol/healthwise--hw3564.html)

This suggests that the mere use of rubbing alcohol to clean the skin can produce a false positive among other causes.

You are most likely diabetic if this is a urine test. Sugar in urine is converted to alcohol by bacteria and will show up as a false positive. My wife, who is diabetic, always had the same problem. DrTom4444