Generally in good health with some sport injuries
Day
PRINCE CHARLES has always enjoyed generally good health with most of his injuries due to sporting pursuits.
The 71-year-old, a keen hill walker and gardener, does suffer some back pain attributed to numerous falls from horses in his many years playing polo.
But even as he underwent a hernia operation at the private King Edward VII’s Hospital in London in, he had joked “hernia today, gone tomorrow.”
He was discharged the following day.
Charles has also told how as a child he was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital to stop his appendix “exploding”.
The prince declared: “I got here just in time before the thing exploded and was happily operated on and looked after by the nurses.”
The heir to the throne never travels without a special cushion, usually a tartan one, for his back which he uses to ease the pain, and takes it with him on royals tours. A red velvet one is always placed on the prince’s chair during state banquets at Buckingham Palace.
In 2003, on an engagement at a Sikh temple in Southall, he told the congregation that he may need a little of their expert care as he sat on the hard floor.
“I don’t think I have ever needed an osteopath so much as I have today,” he joked. “My back is not altogether geared to sitting on the floor so I may need some help on my way out.”
Charles, who also adheres to conventional medical treatment, has always been an advocate of alternative and complementary medicines, including homeopathy.
In the past he has urged health ministers to adopt a more holistic approach to tackling health problems.