Charles’ controversial new U.S. health ‘guru’
PRINCE Charles’s charity promoting homeopathy was wound up after being mired in claims of embezzlement and missing funds, but the heir to the throne refuses to abandon his enthusiasm for controversial alternative health treatments.
I can disclose that the Prince of Wales held private talks last week with an American complementary medicine ‘guru’ who has been criticised by the U.S. authorities for peddling unapproved treatments.
Dr Andrew Weil was invited to Charles’s London residence, Clarence House, ahead of a conference, called Food: The Forgotten Medicine, which they both attended.
‘Although His Royal Highness no longer has a health charity, he remains a passionate advocate of complementary treatments,’ a source tells me.
‘He believes they should play a much bigger part in health care in this country.’
Homeopathy supposedly treats illnesses by using extremely dilute quantities of plants, herbs and minerals, and Dr Weil has been criticised by medical professionals for promoting unverified or ineffective treatments.
His company, Weil Lifestyle, was sent a warning letter in 2009 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding ‘Unapproved/Uncleared/ Unauthorised Products Related to the H1N1 Flu Virus’.
The Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, which campaigned for greater acceptance of natural and alternative health remedies and had been accused of promulgating ‘quack’ remedies dear to the Prince’s heart, was closed down in 2012.
It had been tainted when auditors discovered that £253,000 was missing from its accounts.
The revelation led to the foundation’s finance director, George Gray, being jailed for embezzling the sum over two years.
Charles held private talks in 2013 with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt on the potential role of homeopathy and alternative therapies.
The following year, Hunt said Chinese medicine should be made available on the NHS where there is evidence it helps patients.
Last year, Professor Edzard Ernst, who has spent two decades trying to debunk the myths of alternative medicine, said Charles’s ‘long love affair’ with ‘quack medicine’ might be putting lives at risk.
A Clarence House spokesman confirmed the talks with Dr Weil, adding: ‘The Prince of Wales is a keen advocate of an evidence-based integrated approach to healthcare.’