Soon, Mike became addicted to the item, consuming at least one every day, if not more. In addition, he started to feel a new kind of vigor allowing him to spend more time in the lab, carrying out additional experiments of his own curiosity. Even Prof. Sanders noticed the change and inquired about any change Mike recently made in his life style. Mike mentioned about his new daily affinity to bratwursts from this particular street vendor. Intrigued, Prof. Sanders requested Mike to go to the health center, associated with the institute to donate some blood in order to undergo a thorough analysis of the circulating chemical compounds.
Two days later, Prof. Sanders received the analysis report. As he was pouring through the data, Prof. Sanders noted the surprising presence of a chemical not known to be circulating in the blood of a normal person. Next day, Prof. Sanders stopped by the same vendor Mike mentioned. He would request a sample of their sauerkraut and bring back to the lab. At his request, one of his postdoctoral associates would analyze that sample of sauerkraut, reporting the presence of the same compound that was found to be circulating in Mike’s blood. Prof. Sanders realized that the particular fermentation process that imparted the vendor’s sauerkraut so tasteful was also creating that unique chemical. Prof Sanders theorized that in Mike’s case, he was genetically predisposed to this chemical to augment his immune system. Thus was his new found vigor. But what was the biological rationale for Mike getting addicted to this vendor’s bratwursts? Thus began a whole new line of research in Prof. Sanders’ labs.
After returning to US, Mike started to experience a bratwurst withdrawal syndrome (BWS). At the time of this writing, he checked himself into a rehabilitation program near the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, hoping to recover, just being surrounded by caring nature.