I have a male friend who is violently allergic to alcohol - one little sip makes his system shut down in stages .. the bigger the sip, the shorter the time.... if ever anyone spikes his drink, he's dead.... He used to drink a lot and developed the allergy quite slowly. Conversely, I have a female friend who was born allergic to alcohol (she didn't find out until she was 17....), spent half her life being paranoid, and quite ill when told 'it's got nothing else in it snigger snigger', and then after about 15 years has seen her symptoms lessen, and now she can drink almost anything except scotch.

LTS