King’s doctor: I’m not a homoeopath but I have hypnotised myself to be happy
The King’s personal doctor has insisted he is not a homoeopath but admitted that he had “hypnotised himself to be happy”.
Dr Michael Dixon’s appointment as head of the Royal Medical Household in late 2022 caused a stir owing to his “unconventional” views on homoeopathy and faith healing. His interest in alternative medicine is shared with the King, with whom he has enjoyed a close relationship for decades.
However, Dr Dixon, 72, moved to set the record straight on his practice, while also expressing disparaging views about the NHS, noting that staff were being “throttled” with regulation and treated in a “toxic” way.
He also expressed huge frustration with the clamour for Ozempic among those keen to lose weight, suggesting that people should take responsibility for their own health.
“Can I say, on the record, I’ve never studied homoeopathy,” he told The Times in a rare interview. “I’ve never even offered homoeopathy. What I have done is said that if patients feel they’ve benefited from homoeopathy, what’s the problem?”
Dr Dixon, 72, who juggles his job as an NHS GP in Devon with leading a team of medical professionals looking after the Royal family, admitted that he did dabble in alternative medicine techniques. “I like acupressure. I do a bit of manipulation, a bit of herbs, a bit of self-hypnosis – I think it is very effective,” he said, adding that in the past he had “hypnotised myself to be happy”.
‘Could serve a purpose’
He acknowledged that he thought homoeopathy could serve a purpose on the NHS but not at the expense of “good evidence-based conventional medicine”.
Dr Dixon has long advocated for a complementary or “integrative” approach to medicine, once stating that he was “converted” to homoeopathy after inviting a Christian healer into his NHS clinic. He also wrote a paper in which he said that being seen by spiritual healers “may be an effective adjunct for the treatment of chronically ill patients presenting in general practice”.
Speaking about the doctor in 2019, the then Prince Charles told an audience: “I have nothing but the greatest admiration for everything he has managed to do over all these years.”
Since he was appointed to the Medical Household shortly after the death of Elizabeth II, Dr Dixon has accompanied the monarch on state visits to Germany and Kenya. His salary is paid from the King’s private purse.
Turning to the broken NHS, Dr Dixon said it was “madness” that one in five adults in the UK was on anti-depressants, suggesting that time-pressed GPs simply had no time to deal with patients’ problems more holistically.
Similarly, on the popularity of Ozempic, he said attitudes were focused on the quick fix. “The more we go down this Ozempic route – the more we’re saying, it’s not my responsibility, give me the injection, give me the pill,” he said.
