Yestderday, it was announced that King Charles has cancer. He had been in hospital for surgery for his enlarged prostate. Initially, the news was positive, as it was confirmed not to be prostate cancer. However, during the investigations, a cancer was discovered that apparently is unrelated to the prostate. Since the announcement, many journalists and other people have written to me asking what I think about it and what treatment Charles is likely to receive. I therefore decided to write a short post about the matter.
As a physician and human being I am very sorry whenever I hear that anyone has fallen ill, particularly if the condition is serious and potentially life-threatening. That this includes Charles goes without saying. Equally it is self-evident that I wish that all goes well for him, that the treatment he reportedly has already started is not too arduous, that he keeps in good spirit, that he has empathetic support from all his family and recovers quickly and fully.
Charles will, I am sure, have the best treatment anyone could wish for. Will he use so-called alternative medicine (SCAM), for example, the Gerson therapy, one of the SCAMs he once promoted as a cure of cancer? Of course not! He will receive the most effective, evidence-based care that is currently available. Will he thus not try any SCAM at all? I am confident that he will use SCAM wisely, namely not as a cure but as a supportive measure. In my book on this very subject, I go through all the relevant evidence and conclude that, while SCAM is most certainly not a cancer cure, it can have a place in supportive cancer care. Depending on the symptoms that develop during and after the conventional treatments, certain SCAMs can, according to fairly sound evidence, be helpful in improving wellness and quality of life.
Going through a battle against cancer is often a most humbling experience. Therefore, I am hopeful that, as he recovers from his ordeal, Charles will see that modern medicine – he once described it as being out of balance like the leaning tower of Pisa – is not just effective, empathetic and caring but also not nearly as unbalanced and unholistic as he often proclaimed it to be. In that sense, the experience might reform our king, and – who knows? – he might, after all, turn out to be not the self-proclaimed enemy but a true friend of the Enlightenment.
8 Responses to King Charles and cancer – yes, I do wish him well!
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The King will probably derive much support from TLC – in all its forms and from multiple sources.
For him, ‘Integrative Mecicine’, and alternative medicine (camistry) holds attraction, and his psychological wellbeing is likely to benefit from placebo responses, and the attentions of his household’s head of medical staff – for a while.
However, I hope he will keep his private advocations private, and not try to influence those who may be gullible or vulnerable. Charles III is, after all, a Fellow of the Royal Society – and might usefull emulate its founder, Charles II.
He already did that by having both wife and mistress!
Well said.
He may be dumb but he’s not stupid. With his own health on the line he’ll be going straight to the treatments that work, and not the airy-fairy woo he tells other people they should use.
However when he’s cured (as we all hope he will be) that won’t stop the homeopaths saying it was homeopathy that saved him.
I really wish him a speedy and total recovery from cancer. May the Lord give him the courage and strength to deal with this illness.
I wish him a speedy and total recovery as well. He literally has all the money in the world (stolen from colonies by his ancestors) to help him with that. Therefore he doesn’t need an imaginary being to give him courage. You know who does? All the poor proles and peons left behind in the remants of British colonies, sucked dry by what used to be the empire on which the sun never set.
King Charles III is not responsible for what happened earlier in history. And in ingeritance, nobody gives away their wealth. So let us forget the past. However, I find it weird that he reveals he has cancer but keeps it a secret as to which cancer it is. What to keep that a secret ?
I never said he was responsible. I alluded to who was in my post. Perhaps it will serve you well to read my post again?
Certainly, let us forget the past, when the King is literally sitting on the throne with stolen jewels in his crown, when millions to this day are still effected by past shenanigans of the Empire. Perhaps you have already forgotten about India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine issues to name a few. But hey, it is all hunky-dory for the King and his men.
You sure about that?
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/2022/01/19/americas-top-givers-2022-the-25-most-philanthropic-billionaires/?sh=306527ac3a6c
inheritance I mean. His not disclosing the type of cancer could be to create awareness and people do a check up for all types of cancer and not for a specific type.