PAINLESS EARLY RISING
{To the Editor of the Selicriwron.]
you allow - me a word of explanation in reply to E. J. S.? - The depression that follows the taking of stimulants occurs in the early morning because it is not allowed to item at any other time. It is dammed back by coffee at breakfast, coffee at eleven o'clock, • coffee at lunch, •afternoon tea. and coffee at dinner. During the night Nature has her way, and mental depression is in full tide in the morning. There are other factors, heat and exercise, but they are of less importance. A full explanation is to be found in Uric Acid its a Factor in the causation of Disease, by Dr._ Alexander Haig, and in his other books. These books contain the sitientific basis of my article.
Except in my covering note to you, Sir, I did not mention Dr. Haig's name for two reasons : In the first place I cannot remember that he makes any reference to late or early rising in any of his books, but merely to the morning depression. Obviously, these are different aspects of the Same condition, but as he does not mention late or early rising I could not quote him in support of my view. In the second place, Dr. Haig advises a vegetarian diet and I am not a vegetarian. tried his diet for a number of years, and came to the conclusion that an ordinary mixed diet was more interesting and, in my vase at least, not harmful to any noticeable extent. But I ant convinced that so far as stimulants are concerned he has ilkeovereAl a. very important truth.
There is another side to Dr. Haig's theory. Ile advances it a cure for rheuniatism and allied complaints. When the mic acid introduced by stimulants is in the blood stream it causes mental depression by slowing the circulation ; when it is in the tissue it causes rheumatism. That is his iew. He was anticipated by the country doctor in Balzae's • tory of that name. The country doctor tells his visitor the ritiontandant that he drinks tea to procure forgetfulness of ht, troubles. "It brings on horrid attacks of gout," he Ntys -I quote from memory from an English translation- " bat I cannot bring myself to break off the habit, it is so tothing."
When I read that members of the medical profession regard rheumatism as a great mystery I am bewildered. Are they familiar with -Dr. Haig's theory ? If they have rejected it, on what grounds ? The talk about germs and infection amuses Tue. We have reached the point of believing that disease is due to errors of living. Dr. Haig has advanced a simple and comprehensive explanation of rheumatism and mental depression. It is sound wherever I have been able to test it. Jo-day I have no suspicion of stiffness, but I believe I could bring on the first symptoms of -rheumatism in three months by taking stimulants and keeping cold. The British Medical 1ssociation could test Dr. Haig's theory very easily and without my members of the Sub-Committee giving up tea and coffee. encounter from time to time pet dogs, tea-drinkers, that sifter from stiffness or rheumatism. They are usually also Sleep y in the morning like human beings. Let the British Medical Association take control of one and restrict it to a lion-stimulating diet for a period and see what happens. —
"O(lklands," 109 Gipsy Hill, S.E. 19.
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