Hugh Macdonald Sinclair,
FRCP (4 February 1910 – 22 June 1990) was a medical doctor and researcher into human
nutrition
Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients, which can be metabolized to create energy and chemical structures. Failure to obtain sufficient n ...
. He is most widely known for claiming that what he called "
diseases of civilization" such as
coronary heart disease
Coronary artery disease (CAD), also called coronary heart disease (CHD), ischemic heart disease (IHD), myocardial ischemia, or simply heart disease, involves the reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to build-up of atherosclerotic pla ...
,
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
,
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ap ...
,
inflammation
Inflammation (from la, wikt:en:inflammatio#Latin, inflammatio) is part of the complex biological response of body tissues to harmful stimuli, such as pathogens, damaged cells, or Irritation, irritants, and is a protective response involving im ...
,
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
s and
skin disease
A skin condition, also known as cutaneous condition, is any medical condition that affects the integumentary system—the organ system that encloses the body and includes skin, nails, and related muscle and glands. The major function of this sy ...
are worsened by "bad fats".
Early life
Hugh Macdonald Sinclair was the third of the four children of Colonel Hugh Montgomerie Sinclair and Rosalie Sybil Jackson. Through his father, he was descended from the
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
monarch of Finland, Woldonius, and the St Clair cousins of
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
. His great grandfather was the
Rt. Hon. Sir John Sinclair Bt MP, founder and President of the
British Board of Agriculture, whose second wife was the Hon. Diana Macdonald, the only daughter of Alexander, Lord Macdonald of the Isles. His godfather and cousin was
Sir Archibald Sinclair, Viscount Thurso, leader of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
and
Secretary of State for Air
The Secretary of State for Air was a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state position in the British government, which existed from 1919 to 1964. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. The Secretar ...
in
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 Winston Churchill in the Second World War, dur ...
's wartime cabinet. His maternal grandfather was Sir John Jackson, the eminent engineer.
Hugh was born in
Duddingston House
Duddingston House is an 18th-century mansion in Edinburgh, Scotland, located south-east of the village of Duddingston. It was built in the 1760s for James Hamilton, 8th Earl of Abercorn, and was designed by Sir William Chambers. It is now protec ...
,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, Scotland, which was rented from the
Duke of Abercorn
The title Duke of Abercorn () is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1868 and bestowed upon James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Abercorn, James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Abercorn. Although the Dukedom is in the Peerage of Ireland, it refe ...
.
Education
Sinclair followed his older brother, John, to Stone House School and then to
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of the ...
, where he was from 1923 to 1929, being awarded the Headmaster's Natural Science Prize, 1928, and the Senior Science Prize, 1929.
In that year, he went up to
Oriel College, Oxford
Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, wh ...
, to read Animal Physiology, in which he duly achieved a
First
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
three years later, when he was appointed Departmental Demonstrator in Biochemistry and then Senior
Demy at
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
. He won the Gotch Memorial Prize in 1933.
He went on to study Clinical Medicine at
University College Hospital Medical School
UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The School provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical educati ...
, London, 1933–1936, resulting in the qualifications of Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery of the
Society of Apothecaries (LMSSA), Master of Arts (MA), and
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery ( la, Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae; abbreviated most commonly MBBS), is the primary medical degree awarded by medical schools in countries that follow the tradition of the United King ...
(BM, BCh), as well as in gold and silver medals. In parallel he was Lecturer in Physiology at
University College, London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
.
He was awarded a Radcliffe Travelling Fellowship, which allowed him to make an extensive visit during the summer of 1937 to many of the laboratories in the US and Canada engaged in nutritional research, but he had to curtail his travels because he had been elected Official Fellow and Tutor in Physiology and Biochemistry at Magdalen College, followed by appointment as University Lecturer and Demonstrator in Biochemistry, 1937–1947.
Scientific career
Oxford Nutrition Survey
At the beginning of the war in 1939, Sinclair joined a
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply (MoS) was a department of the UK government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. A separate ministry, however, was responsible for aircr ...
team under Professor
Rudolph Peters
Sir Rudolph Albert Peters MC MID FRS H FRSE FRCP LLD (13 April 1889 – 29 January 1982) was a British biochemist. He led the research team at Oxford who developed British Anti-Lewisite (BAL), an antidote for the chemical warfare agent lewisite ...
in the Department of Biochemistry, seeking countermeasures to
poison gas
Many gases have toxic properties, which are often assessed using the LC50 (median lethal dose) measure. In the United States, many of these gases have been assigned an NFPA 704 health rating of 4 (may be fatal) or 3 (may cause serious or perman ...
, but the nutritional status of the population and how to assess it began to occupy Sinclair more and more. Drawing on the assistance of many contacts, Sinclair drew up and submitted proposals for the establishment of what eventually became known as the Oxford Nutrition Survey. The Ministry of Health agreed to the proposals, as did the Regional Medical Council to two local counties. Strong support came from the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...
, largely through the efforts of Dr Hugh Smith. Eventually
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
accepted responsibility for the unit and made Sinclair Director of the Survey.
Data to be collected included
anthropometric
Anthropometry () refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various atte ...
measurements, clinical assessment, physiological determinations on blood (
hemoglobin
Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythrocyte ...
, clotting time, red and white cell counts, phosphate, total
vitamin B1
Thiamine, also known as thiamin and vitamin B1, is a vitamin, an essential micronutrient, that cannot be made in the body. It is found in food and commercially synthesized to be a dietary supplement or medication. Phosphorylated forms of thia ...
,
cocarboxylase,
vitamin C
Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...
,
vitamin B2,
nicotinic acid
Niacin, also known as nicotinic acid, is an organic compound and a form of vitamin B3, an essential human nutrient. It can be manufactured by plants and animals from the amino acid tryptophan. Niacin is obtained in the diet from a variet ...
), urine (nitrogen, vitamin C, and vitamin B
1 levels on two samples taken 4 hours apart), and
visual dark adaptation.
Sinclair decided that what Sir William Jameson, Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, would find most useful were "half-page" survey-backed assurances that the indications were that the nation's nutritional status was satisfactory, rather than detailed papers, suitable for submission to recognised
peer review
Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer review ...
ed scientific journals. This decision led to persistent criticism.
Part of the work of the Oxford Nutrition Survey was carried out by a small mobile team, which was sent to industrial towns, such as
Accrington
Accrington is a town in the Hyndburn borough of Lancashire, England. It lies about east of Blackburn, west of Burnley, east of Preston, north of Manchester and is situated on the culverted River Hyndburn. Commonly abbreviated by locals to ...
,
Merthyr
Merthyr Tydfil (; cy, Merthyr Tudful ) is the main town in Merthyr Tydfil County Borough, Wales, administered by Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council. It is about north of Cardiff. Often called just Merthyr, it is said to be named after Tydf ...
,
Chesterfield
Chesterfield may refer to:
Places Canada
* Rural Municipality of Chesterfield No. 261, Saskatchewan
* Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut United Kingdom
* Chesterfield, Derbyshire, a market town in England
** Chesterfield (UK Parliament constitue ...
, and
Dundee
Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...
. Noting Sinclair's experience in organising and managing this work, the Dutch Government in exile invited him to conduct surveys of the nutritional status of the Dutch population affected by the famine of the last months of the war in Europe (see
Dutch famine of 1944–45
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
). Following hectic preparations, Sinclair and his team went to the Netherlands as the Nutrition Survey Group SHAEF (
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force
Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF; ) was the headquarters of the Commander of Allied forces in north west Europe, from late 1943 until the end of World War II. U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower was the commander in SHAEF th ...
), just before the German surrender. He found a base in
Leiden
Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
, where 26,000 biochemical analyses were said to have been carried out in just two weeks. The rapid pace of work of the Oxford team and for their Dutch colleagues was a consequence of the desperate situation. The state of the famine needed to be assessed, treatment and response recorded, and the results set out to inform future action in similar circumstances. In addition, the best treatments needed to be identified and applied.
For his achievements, Sinclair was appointed a Chevalier of the order of Oranje-Nassau by the
Queen of the Netherlands
The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...
.
In 1945 Sinclair was invited to take the mobile laboratories to
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, where he set up the headquarters for the Nutrition Survey Group for the British Control Commission. Sinclair again achieved extraordinary feats of organisation, setting up five teams in different cities, under leaders drawn from his colleagues in Oxford and from elsewhere. Sinclair was made an honorary Brigadier and was subsequently awarded the U.S.
Presidential Medal of Freedom
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, along with the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by the president of the United States to recognize people who have made "an especially merito ...
with Silver Palm.
The Oxford Nutrition Survey was closed formally in 1946 and the Nutrition Survey Group was ended in 1947. Instead of the Department of Human Nutrition, which Sinclair had expected to be able to set up after the war, he was designated Director of the Laboratory of Human Nutrition, which was allocated a few
Nissen hut
A Nissen hut is a prefabricated steel structure for military use, especially as barracks, made from a half-cylindrical skin of corrugated iron. Designed during the First World War by the American-born, Canadian-British engineer and inventor Majo ...
s at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, which had recently been released by the U.S. forces. The Laboratory inherited most of the equipment and some of the staff of the Survey, but not the accommodation. He was appointed as the first University Reader in Human Nutrition in 1951. In 1954,
Hans Adolf Krebs
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, FRS (, ; 25 August 1900 – 22 November 1981) was a German-born British biologist, physician and biochemist. He was a pioneer scientist in the study of cellular respiration, a biochemical process in living cells that ex ...
succeeded Sir
Rudolph Peters
Sir Rudolph Albert Peters MC MID FRS H FRSE FRCP LLD (13 April 1889 – 29 January 1982) was a British biochemist. He led the research team at Oxford who developed British Anti-Lewisite (BAL), an antidote for the chemical warfare agent lewisite ...
as Professor and Head of the Department of Biochemistry, to which the Laboratory was transferred and closed shortly thereafter.
Letter to ''The Lancet''
In 1956 Sinclair made his most widely known contribution to nutrition in the form of a letter to ''
The Lancet
''The Lancet'' is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal and one of the oldest of its kind. It is also the world's highest-impact academic journal. It was founded in England in 1823.
The journal publishes original research articles, ...
'', entitled "Deficiency of essential fatty acids and atherosclerosis, etcetera". The causes of death that had increased most in previous years were
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
,
coronary thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis is defined as the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. This blood clot may then restrict blood flow within the heart, leading to heart tissue damage, or a myocardial infarction, also known as a heart at ...
, and
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
and Sinclair believed
essential fatty acid
Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that humans and other animals must ingest because the body requires them for good health but cannot synthesize them.
Only two fatty acids are known to be essential for humans: alpha-linolenic ac ...
(EFA) deficiency to be important in all three. EFA deficiency causes extra deposition of
cholesterol
Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...
esters in the
epidermis
The epidermis is the outermost of the three layers that comprise the skin, the inner layers being the dermis and hypodermis. The epidermis layer provides a barrier to infection from environmental pathogens and regulates the amount of water rele ...
. Sinclair thought the tetraenoic
arachidonic acid
Arachidonic acid (AA, sometimes ARA) is a polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acid 20:4(ω-6), or 20:4(5,8,11,14). It is structurally related to the saturated arachidic acid found in cupuaçu butter. Its name derives from the New Latin word ''arachi ...
to be the most important EFA. Its biosynthesis requires
vitamin B6
Vitamin B6 is one of the B vitamins, and thus an essential nutrient. The term refers to a group of six chemically similar compounds, i.e., "vitamers", which can be interconverted in biological systems. Its active form, pyridoxal 5′-phosphat ...
. Hardening of fats reduces EFAs and changing to low-extraction flour diminishes the vitamin B6 content. Improvers, such as
chlorine dioxide
Chlorine dioxide is a chemical compound with the formula ClO2 that exists as yellowish-green gas above 11 °C, a reddish-brown liquid between 11 °C and −59 °C, and as bright orange crystals below −59 °C. It is usually ...
, destroy any EFA present, as well as
vitamin E
Vitamin E is a group of eight fat soluble compounds that include four tocopherols and four tocotrienols. Vitamin E deficiency, which is rare and usually due to an underlying problem with digesting dietary fat rather than from a diet low in vitami ...
, which would protect it.
The cholesterol thus esterified with abnormal fatty acids is less easily eliminated and so leads to
atheroma
An atheroma, or atheromatous plaque, is an abnormal and reversible accumulation of material in the inner layer of an arterial wall.
The material consists of mostly macrophage cells, or debris, containing lipids, calcium and a variable amount o ...
.
Phospholipid
Phospholipids, are a class of lipids whose molecule has a hydrophilic "head" containing a phosphate group and two hydrophobic "tails" derived from fatty acids, joined by an alcohol residue (usually a glycerol molecule). Marine phospholipids typ ...
s containing abnormal fatty acids are also less easily eliminated and so are retained in the
plasma
Plasma or plasm may refer to:
Science
* Plasma (physics), one of the four fundamental states of matter
* Plasma (mineral), a green translucent silica mineral
* Quark–gluon plasma, a state of matter in quantum chromodynamics
Biology
* Blood pla ...
and increase the
coagulability of blood, thereby contributing to coronary and cerebral
thrombosis
Thrombosis (from Ancient Greek "clotting") is the formation of a blood clot inside a blood vessel, obstructing the flow of blood through the circulatory system. When a blood vessel (a vein or an artery) is injured, the body uses platelets (thro ...
. The deficiency of normal phospholipids in the epidermis and gut makes their structure faulty and so may contribute to
seborrhoeic eczema and
peptic ulcer
Peptic ulcer disease (PUD) is a break in the inner lining of the stomach, the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while one in the first part of the intestines i ...
. Similarly, deficiency of normal phospholipids or the presence of abnormal phospholipids in the
nervous system
In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes th ...
leads to defective structure, including
demyelination
A demyelinating disease is any disease of the nervous system in which the myelin sheath of neurons is damaged. This damage impairs the conduction of signals in the affected nerves. In turn, the reduction in conduction ability causes deficiency i ...
, which would cause
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...
and possibly
mental illness
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
. Deficiency of EFAs may increase susceptibility to
X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
and chemical
carcinogen
A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that promotes carcinogenesis (the formation of cancer). This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes. Several radioactive substan ...
s, the former in conjunction with the latter leading to leukaemia and the latter to
carcinoma
Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesodermal ...
of the
bronchus
A bronchus is a passage or airway in the lower respiratory tract that conducts air into the lungs. The first or primary bronchi pronounced (BRAN-KAI) to branch from the trachea at the carina are the right main bronchus and the left main bronchus. ...
and to the predominance of carcinoma of the stomach in males, the male requirement for EFAs being about five times that of the female.
Much of the letter is speculative and some of the comments are injudicious. Nevertheless, it constituted a landmark and led to correspondence for more than a year. Apart from this paper, in this period, Sinclair had published on a variety of topics, including nutritional deficiency in general and in more specific aspects, such as the relation of deficiencies of vitamin A and essential fatty acids to follicular hyperkeratosis in rats, lesions of
mucocutaneous zone A mucocutaneous junction, or mucocutaneous boundary, is a region of the body in which mucosa transitions to skin. Mucocutaneous zones occur in animals, at the body orifices.
In humans, mucocutaneous junctions are found at the lips, nostrils, conjun ...
s in the rat in
pyridoxine
Pyridoxine, is a form of vitamin B6 found commonly in food and used as a dietary supplement. As a supplement it is used to treat and prevent pyridoxine deficiency, sideroblastic anaemia, pyridoxine-dependent epilepsy, certain metabolic disorde ...
deficiency,
ascorbic acid
Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...
in
hypervitaminosis A
Hypervitaminosis A refers to the toxic effects of ingesting too much preformed vitamin A (retinyl esters, retinol, and retinal). Symptoms arise as a result of altered bone metabolism and altered metabolism of other fat-soluble vitamins. Hypervit ...
in
guinea pigs
The guinea pig or domestic guinea pig (''Cavia porcellus''), also known as the cavy or domestic cavy (), is a species of rodent belonging to the genus ''Cavia'' in the family Caviidae. Breeders tend to use the word ''cavy'' to describe the ani ...
,
polycythemia
Polycythemia (also known as polycythaemia) is a laboratory finding in which the hematocrit (the volume percentage of red blood cells in the blood) and/or hemoglobin concentration are increased in the blood. Polycythemia is sometimes called erythr ...
in the rat in pyridoxine deficiency, skin permeability in deficiency of essential fatty acids, vitamin deficiencies in
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
, vitamins and the nervous system, and nutritional
neuropathy
Peripheral neuropathy, often shortened to neuropathy, is a general term describing disease affecting the peripheral nerves, meaning nerves beyond the brain and spinal cord. Damage to peripheral nerves may impair sensation, movement, gland, or o ...
in chronic
thiamine
Thiamine, also known as thiamin and vitamin B1, is a vitamin, an essential micronutrient, that cannot be made in the body. It is found in food and commercially synthesized to be a dietary supplement or medication. Phosphorylated forms of thi ...
deficiency in the rat.
In 1958, the first election period for Sinclair's Readership ended, and he was not reappointed, presumably because his contribution to the traditional scientific literature was judged to be insufficient, in spite of the broad sweep and originality of his thinking.
Recognition
Sinclair was no longer a member of the Department of Biochemistry, but he continued to tutor at Magdalen and, because of his reputation as an inspiring and entertaining speaker, he was invited to lecture widely. He tried hard to raise support for his research, and for an Institute of Human Nutrition, from his wide circle of contacts, in particular Lord Bossom and through him
Lord Woolton
Frederick James Marquis, 1st Earl of Woolton, (23 August 1883 – 14 December 1964) was an English businessman and politician who served as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955.
In April 1940, he was appointed Minister of Food ...
, the wartime
Minister of Food
The Minister of Food Control (1916–1921) and the Minister of Food (1939–1958) were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. In the Great War the Ministry sponsored a network of canteens known as ...
(1940–1943), but he did not press his case as hard as he might have done, mainly as a consequence of the shock of the death in a car crash of his sister, Catherine. He had already lost his brother to heart disease about 6½ years earlier, in 1954. Lord Woolton died in 1964 and Lord Bossom in 1965.
Sinclair continued to be granted recognition in other ways. Thus he was Cutter Lecturer at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
in 1951, Master of the
Worshipful Society of Apothecaries
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the livery companies of the City of London. It is one of the largest livery companies (with over 1,600 members in 2012) and ranks 58th in their order of precedence.
The society is a m ...
for 1967–1968, awarded an Honorary DSc from
Baldwin-Wallace College
Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace Co ...
in 1968, Sanderson-Wells Lecturer in London in 1969, and President of the McCarrison Society 1983–1990.
Inuit diet experiment
Sinclair first wrote about the diet of the
Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
in 1953. In 1966, he lectured in
Trondheim
Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...
, where he renewed his interest. In 1976, he was able to spend some time joining the expedition of Bang and Dyerberg in northwest
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...
, which led to his most widely known experiment, in which he put himself on an Inuit diet, consisting solely of seal, fish (including molluscs and crustaceans), and water for 100 days, starting in March 1979. Many analyses were done: extreme disaggregation of
platelets
Platelets, also called thrombocytes (from Greek θρόμβος, "clot" and κύτος, "cell"), are a component of blood whose function (along with the coagulation factors) is to react to bleeding from blood vessel injury by clumping, thereby ini ...
was observed, with bleeding times rising from 3 min to over 50 min, accompanied by spontaneous
hemorrhage
Bleeding, hemorrhage, haemorrhage or blood loss, is blood escaping from the circulatory system from damaged blood vessels. Bleeding can occur internally, or externally either through a natural opening such as the mouth, nose, ear, urethra, vag ...
s. (Inuit are known to suffer from
nosebleed
A nosebleed, also known as epistaxis, is bleeding from the nose. Blood can flow down into the stomach, and cause nausea and vomiting. In more severe cases, blood may come out of both nostrils. Rarely, bleeding may be so significant that low bloo ...
.) The experiment was a dramatic demonstration of the importance of long-chain fatty acids of fish oils in decreasing the aggregation of platelets and thus the incidence of thrombosis.
Subsequent career
In 1968, Sinclair was appointed University Lecturer in Biological Sciences at Oxford and, in 1970, Visiting Professor in Food Science at the
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
, where he continued to give lectures right up to the year of his death. The text of the most significant of these is incorporated into the book by Walker (1990).
At times, Sinclair entertained hopes that he might found his institute at
Nuneham Park
Nuneham House is an eighteenth century villa in the Palladian architecture, Palladian style, set in parkland at Nuneham Courtenay in Oxfordshire, England. It is currently owned by Oxford University and is used as a retreat centre by the Brahma Ku ...
, a mansion in extensive grounds, near
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, but gradually he realised that the most practical way forward would be to use his home, Lady Place,
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on the River Thames south of Abingdon-on-Thames and northwest of Didcot. Historically part of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of Oxfordshire since the 1974 boundary changes. The 201 ...
, also near Oxford, which had been purchased by his mother in 1933.
In 1972, The Memorandum and Articles of Association of The Association for the Study of Human Nutrition Limited were signed, the subscribers being Hugh Sinclair, Francis Aylward,
Richard Doll
Sir William Richard Shaboe Doll (28 October 1912 – 24 July 2005) was a British physician who became an epidemiologist in the mid-20th century and made important contributions to that discipline. He was a pioneer in research linking smoking ...
, Arthur Elliott-Smith,
David Paton Cuthbertson, Herbert Kay and John Talbot, Solicitor. The Association was subsequently registered as a charity. Sinclair became its Director. Soon the name was changed to The International Institute of Human Nutrition and later to The International Nutrition Foundation. Lord Porritt was invited to join the Council, the composition of which changed over the years:
Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition
Sinclair had plans drawn up for a substantial institute to be built at Lady Place. It was to incorporate laboratory facilities for fifty workers, together with a lecture theatre, a museum, offices, and a library to house his collection of some 300,000 reprints and books, including those of
Sir Robert McCarrison, Surgeon-Captain
Thomas L. Cleave
Thomas Latimer (Peter) Cleave (1906–1983) was a surgeon captain who researched the Health effect, negative health effects of consuming refined carbohydrate (notably sugar and white flour) which would not have been available during early human ev ...
br>
Neil Painter,
Hugh Trowell
and
Cicely Williams
Cicely Delphine Williams, OM, CMG, FRCP (2 December 1893 – 13 July 1992) was a Jamaican physician, most notable for her discovery and research into kwashiorkor, a condition of advanced malnutrition, and her campaign against the use of swee ...
. Much of his time was occupied in trying to raise funds, but the operation of the institute in the temporary accommodation arranged at Lady Place was heavily dependent on personal financial donations from Sinclair. He left his entire estate to the Foundation.
The Council of Management decided not to assume direct responsibility for the development of research at Lady Place, but to see whether a university would wish to further Sinclair's aspirations by founding a chair in Human Nutrition. Accordingly, proposals were invited and a panel of international experts in nutrition was appointed to assess the relative merits of the proposals submitted. In the final round, there were three contenders:
Oxford Brookes University
Oxford Brookes University (formerly known as Oxford Polytechnic (United Kingdom), Polytechnic) is a public university, public university in Oxford, England. It is a new university, having received university status through the Further and High ...
, the University of Oxford, and the University of Reading. The last proved successful and, in due course, the Foundation was wound up and the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition was established at the University of Reading. In 1995, Christine Williams was appointed as the first Hugh Sinclair Professor and the appointment of other staff followed swiftly.
The above account of Hugh Sinclair's life and achievements has been largely based on the publications of Ewin (2001) and Gale and Lloyd (1990).
Lady Place
The mock-Tudor mansion Lady Place in
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Courtenay is a village and civil parish on the River Thames south of Abingdon-on-Thames and northwest of Didcot. Historically part of Berkshire, it has been administered as part of Oxfordshire since the 1974 boundary changes. The 201 ...
, the Sinclair home, was used by the University of Reading after Sinclair's death in 1990. It was destroyed in a fire on 28 August 1998; a local man was subsequently cleared of arson charges.
''"Squatter cleared of mansion blaze"'' News article in Oxford Mail Archive dated 15 April 1999
/ref> An estate of houses was built on the site in 2000, with a half-timbered apartment block occupying the location of the mansion.
Primary sources
*Ewin, J., ''Fine Wines & Fish Oil, the Life of Hugh Macdonald Sinclair'', Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 2001.
*Gale, M., and Lloyd, B. (ed.), ''Sinclair, Dr Hugh Macdonald Sinclair, DM, DSc, FRCP'', the McCarrison Society, Wokingham
Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell.
History
Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...
, 1990.
*R.W. Johnson
R. W. Johnson (born 1943; Richard William, "Bill" ) is a British journalist, political scientist, and historian who lives in South Africa. Born in England, he was educated at University of Natal, Natal University and University of Oxford, Oxford ...
, ''Look Back in Laughter: Oxford's Golden Postwar Age'', Threshold Press, 2015.
*Walker, A. F. (ed.), ''Applied Human Nutrition for Food Scientists and Home Economists'', Ellis Horwood, Chichester, 1990.
References
External links
Review of Fine Wines & Fish Oils
by a former student of Hugh Macdonald Sinclar, ''Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, Hugh Macdonald
1910 births
1990 deaths
Academics of the University of Reading
Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford
Harvard University people
British medical researchers
People from Sutton Courtenay