Alexander Haig (19 January 1853 – 6 April 1924) was a Scottish physician, dietitian and vegetarianism activist. He was best known for pioneering the uric-acid free diet.
Biography
Haig was born at Rumbling Bridge, Perthshire, in Scotland. He was the son of George Andrew Haig of Bonnington and Maulesden, Brechin. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford. He took the M.R.C.S in 1879, graduated M.A. in 1880 and obtained his M.D. in 1888. He was elected F.R.C.P. in 1890. He was a physician in London from 1882. He was consulting physician to the Royal Waterloo Hospital for Children and Women and to the Metropolitan Hospital. Haig married his cousin Gertrude Mary Haig on 19 February 1878. He had one son and two daughters. His son was physician Kenneth G. Haig.
Haig died in London on 6 April 1924, aged 71. He was buried in Edinburgh.
Uric acid
In the 1880s Haig discovered that by eliminating meat from his diet it brought him relief from a migraine that he had suffered from for years. Haig suggested that excess of uric acid in the blood may cause depression, epilepsy, and migraines. He came to the conclusion that his headaches and virtually every other disease known to man was caused by excess uric acid including cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, gout, hypertension, and stroke. Haig is credited as one of the first physicians to link excess uric acid to hypertension.
Haig was the expositor of the uric-acid free (also known as the purine free) diet, a lacto-vegetarian diet. His best known work was his book Uric Acid as a Factor in the Causation of Disease which was translated in multiple languages. It brought Haig into communication with people from many countries around the world. Patients consulted him from as far as China and India. The idea of a "purine free" diet is impossible as all foods contain purines. Haig's diet was thus to restrict foods high in purines. In 1911, Haig claimed that he lived on a uric-acid free diet and that his turnover of uric acid was under 10gr which is far under a meat-eaters diet which is over 20gr.
Purines are present in meat foods and high consumption of these foods has been implicated in causing gout, bladder and kidney stones. Haig experimented and proceeded to demonstrate that uric acid deposits were also responsible for eczema, jaundice, gastritis and flatulence. He used the terms “uricacidemia” and “collaemia” which he believed were responsible for causing many conditions from anemia to atherosclerosis. Uricacidemia was defined as excess uric acid in the blood. Collaemia was defined as "excess of uric acid in the blood, the uric acid being in some colloid form which obstructs more or less the capillary circulation all over the body."
His book Uric Acid went through seven editions in the 1890s and 1900s. Haig's uric-acid free diet (known as Haig's diet) required the elimination of every food containing high amounts of purines that could be metabolized into uric acid. On this diet all meats and many vegetables were eliminated including asparagus, beans, lentils, mushrooms, peas and whole grain products. Haig's diet became more extreme over time. His original diet included eggs, fruit and fish. These were later omitted. Haig advised people to live on "bread stuffs, milk, cheese, and vegetables."
Haig criticized ordinary vegetarian diets as asparagus, beans, lentils and mushrooms contain purines and thus produce uric acid. He recommended his uric-acid free vegetarian diet to athletes. The uric-acid free diet was restricted to cheese, milk, some vegetables, fruits, nuts and white bread. Haig claimed that vegetarians were in error for eating "poisonous things such as peas, beans and lentils. They are twice as poisonous as meat". Haig described rhubarb as a "poisonous and highly acid vegetable". Haig stated that his own diet consisted "chiefly of bread". He condemned tea drinking, commenting that tea drinkers "are simply swallowing uric acid". Haig opposed the consumption of cacao, coffee and tea as they contain xanthine, a purine.
Cancer
Haig argued that cancer, gout and rheumatism are allied diseases that are the result of an excess of uric acid and can be treated by dietetic therapy. Haig described cancer as a "rich man's disease", linking the frequency of cancer with the consumption of costly animal foods. He commented that "the great sum of uric acid disease is increasing with the increased consumption of meat and tea, and cancer is steadily increasing with this."