One does have to be a medical specialist--at least in one's own conditions and tendencies, or those of one's family.

The problem is, especially the way medicine is now practiced in most places, doctors don't have the incentive or the inclination to get at the causes of anything remotely complicated. And when it comes to conditions that have autoimmune components, or, often, toxic or hereditary components, the situation is almost by definition going to get complicated, inasmuch that I agree that many of these conditions are not DIRECTLY inherited, but the genetic tendency towards them IS, and given the "proper" environmental stresses or triggers, the tendency will be expressed.

Generally, only patients or their loved ones who have to live with these things every day have the desire, or the need, to really delve into the causes and the research. Even those med people who are researchers by inclination are often so because they have a friend or family member with a condition that they want to track down the beginnings of.

In Alan's case, I don't think the neuropathy is DIRECTLY inherited. But certainly, the tendency to have an autoimmune mediated neuropathy probably was. We already know he has another autoimmune condition (psoraisis). And, since both Guillain Barre Syndrome and CIDP, as well as a number of other autoimmune neuropathies, are suspected to often be triggered by particular bacteria/viruses (Epstein Barr, Campylobacter jejuni; and Haemophilus influenzae notably) producing a molecular mimicry process, what Alan has probably inherited is a nerve cell structure that is very much like those of some of these pathogens and which would be especially prone to a molecular mimicry cascade. As such, the fact that his mother had Guillain Barre is quite relevant.

I also suspect that we are exposed to many more potential "triggers" than we used to be--not only are there amny more toxic substances floating around than a few hundred years ago, but bacteria/viruses vector among populations in far-flung locations far faster than they used to.