Doctors are trained to observe and identify. All the training,
memorization of anatomy and facts is what they do. They are products of the "system".... so when a buzz word like alcohol enters the picture, --bingo they will fixate on that as the cause and "problem solved". Once they get that "diagnosis" any new info to the contrary is often ignored. When my feet hurt so badly when I was about 30... the medical answer to me was--"you stand on them all day long in your job"...when the real answer was -- hypothyroid.

Have sugar problems? Therefore all your neuropathy is diabetic. Normal fasting? No diabetes --but wait..you still could be pre-diabetic but since they were not trained in that, you don't have that potential! You may be diabetic and have just had a course of CIPRO and now your neuropathy has blossomed, and of course it is the diabetes, and not the drug that is at fault.WRONG. Not all diabetics get neuropathy equally. Not all patients get neuropathy from Cipro, but many factors may enter into your particular picture.

The logic in medicine is very outdated. And there are many factors involved in medicine that make people ill.
Doctors are loath to admit that what they did to "treat" you made you worse in some way. But that is the sad truth.
It is called iatrogenic medicine.
Type in iatrogenic medicine statistics into Google and you can find sobering statistics:
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/medic...med/deaths.htm

And it is thought that up to 40% of diagnoses are wrong. (based on autopsy after death)

And some minds in our culture believe that alcohol is one factor that has enabled humans to evolve. Yes, alcohol soothes and relaxes, and in the "old" days was used as a medicine. (I read a book by Viktor Frankl who stated this opinion). Why when I was a student and worked in the summer in a hospital we had spiritus fermenti ordered by doctors on the floors.

If anyone is interested in the biochemistry of alcohol and how it raises cholesterol and does other destructive things, here is a video including it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
This is a lecture being given to a medical audience about FRUCTOSE and how it harms the body. Alcohol is included in the middle portion concerning alternate pathways of metabolism of various carbohydrates in the liver.

With the new data coming in on the human genome, we will some day understand individual differences in metabolism, be able to taylor diet more constructively and also apply drugs in a more accurate way for each person. Right now things are pretty crude in the medical arena.