King Charles has been criticized for his support of homeopathic ‘quackery’. But which other British royals swear by the controversial treatments?

King Charles is often castigated for his interest in homeopathic medicine.

And there was fresh criticism recently when it was reported that a 71-year-old part-time GP from Devon has been appointed head of the royal medical household.

Dr. Michael Dixon, OBE, has been asked by the King to lead the team serving his relatives. Dr. Dixon will also be present for births and deaths in the family, should they occur during his term.

Dr. Dixon has attracted attention because, in addition to his conventional qualifications, he has developed a particular interest in complementary and alternative approaches.

This includes homeopathy, which is based on the idea that extremely diluted amounts of a substance can help the body overcome illness or malfunction.

To many in the medical community this is merely ‘quackery’ – and they can point to the fact that homeopathic remedies have been banned from the NHS following the official conclusion that their effect is no better than a placebo.

Not that the king agrees, or seems to care; his support for complementary medicine is well known.

In 1993, as Prince of Wales, he founded the Foundation for Integrated Health to investigate the combination of ‘safe, proven complementary therapies’ with modern medicine.

His health and wellbeing center at Dumfries House in Ayreshire offers a range of alternative treatments including reflexology, acupuncture and hypnotherapy.

The results of courses for couples struggling with infertility are – at least as reported – truly impressive.

Nevertheless, the king’s support for homeopathy has remained controversial, bringing him into conflict with parts of the medical establishment.

Professor Edzard Ernst, a long-time antagonist, has described Charles as a “snake oil salesman” in this regard.

Something the king obviously disputes. And in this he has received support from other members of the royal family.

Charles is not the royal man who shows an interest in alternative approaches in general or homeopathy in particular.

According to The Daily Mail’s Richard Kay, the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth herself was a believer.

In 2020, he explained how the Queen took a small leather bag with her when she went abroad.

‘Divided into as many as 60 compartments and replenished by assistants before each voyage, it contained a bewildering supply of homeopathic remedies.

‘There was arsenicum album for food poisoning, cocculus for motion sickness, nux vomica for indigestion and arnica, for jet lag and bruises.’

That leather case, he suggests, symbolized royal patronage for alternative medicines.

“And despite strident claims that such treatments are quackery, who could say they have not served her well,” he wrote at the time.

Although he was rarely as outspoken on the issue as Charles, it appears that his relatives often sided with him.

‘The Queen’s father, George VI, relied on it as much as conventional medicine, and named one of his racehorses Hypericum, after a drug.

‘So did the Queen Mother, and she lived to be 101 years old.

‘Even Prince Philip, who is generally more skeptical on this issue, wore a copper bracelet for years to ward off arthritis.’

The royal interest goes back even further: to the beginning of the nineteenth century, when homeopathy was founded by the German Samuel Hahneman.

In 1835, King William IV’s wife, Queen Adelaide, used it to treat an ‘ailment’.

Prince Albert’s father is said to have been interested in Hahnemann’s principles and the theory flourished during the reign of his daughter-in-law, Queen Victoria.

A century later, in 1980, Victoria’s great-granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth, gave royal warrants to a homeopathic pharmacy in London, Ainsworths, for services to her, to the Queen Mother and to Prince Charles.

According to the Sunday Times, Dr. Dixon has been in his position in the royal family for about a year.

The newspaper reports that over the course of his career the doctor has written papers suggesting that Christian healers could help chronically ill patients, despite this being an ‘unfashionable’ claim.

In another article, he cited the potential benefits of homeopathy, and referenced an experiment suggesting that Indian herbal medicines “ultra-diluted” with alcohol could cure cancer.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said that Dr. Dixon receives an honorarium to cover travel and expenses and that this is not funded by taxpayers.

‘There is nothing secret about his appointment; it is not necessarily the case that such appointments will be announced publicly,” a spokesperson said.

‘Dr. Dixon is a practicing general practitioner; a Fellow of the Royal College of GPs; a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians; former chairman of NHS Alliance; former co-chair of the National Social Prescribing Network; former NHS England National Clinical Champion for Social Prescribing and President of the College of Medicine. He also holds an OBE for services to primary care.

‘Dr. Dixon is not a homeopathic doctor. His position is that complementary therapies can sit alongside conventional treatments, provided they are safe, appropriate and evidence-based.”