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King Charles III signs formal Accession Council papers<\/p>\nEXCLUSIVE: Following King Charles III’s ascent to the throne attention on him from both the media and on social channels online has spiked – and one health matter, in particular, keeps coming up<\/p>\n
13:49, 09 Sep 2022Updated 17:09, 10 Sep 2022<\/p>\n
King Charles III signs formal Accession Council papers<\/p>\n
A doctor has weighed in after the internet exploded with speculation over King Charles<\/a> III’s red and swollen fingers.<\/p>\n Dr Gareth Nye has spoken out on Charles’s hands following the death of the monarch’s mother Queen <\/a>Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n Images of the new ruler’s hands have been circulating online since the Queen passed away yesterday (Thursday, September 8), aged 96 at her residence in Balmoral.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children Archie and Lilibet are now prince and princess<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Queen’s advanced age when she passed meant that her son and heir Charles <\/a>was far from a young man when he ascended to the throne aged 73.<\/p>\n Taking to Twitter, user @Anaiishhh1said: “Have y\u2019all ever seen Charles\u2019s fingers”.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, @leahgaraas added: “A reminder that these are King Charles III\u2019s fingers”.<\/p>\n Adding authority to the debate, Dr Gareth Nye, Senior Lecturer at the University of Chester, has spoken to the Daily Star to offer some expert advice on what the King’s swollen fingers could really say about his health.<\/p>\n He said that while “loads of conditions” could lead to swollen fingers, he said some were more likely than others.<\/p>\n One possibility was oedema, or fluid retention. Dr Nye said: “Oedema is a condition where the body starts to retain fluids in the limbs, normally the legs and ankles but also in the fingers which causes them to swell.<\/p>\n “Oedema is a common condition and mostly affects people over the age of 65 as the ability for fluid control is restricted,” he added.<\/p>\n “To see if this is the cause, pressing the swollen area for about 15 seconds would cause a depression in the area.”<\/p>\n Another condition Dr Nye said was a possibility was arthritis.<\/p>\n He said: “Arthritis- another common condition in the over 60s. It often affects three main areas in the hand – the thumb joint or either joints in the fingers.<\/p>\n For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking <\/strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n “Fingers usually become stiff, painful and swollen and although medication can help with the pain, the swelling can remain.<\/p>\n “Uncommon causes may include high salt diet leading to fluid retention, certain medications can rarely lead to swelling as a side effect such as with blood pressure medications or steroid medications.”<\/p>\n But despite these possibilities, Dr Nye was quick to make clear they were far from a sign of a major health issue for the UK’s new King.<\/p>\n He added: “There certainly aren’t any immediate health concerns to be concluded from swollen fingers and is most likely a sign of his age.”<\/p>\n READ NEXT:<\/strong><\/p>\n READ MORE: Bank of England confirms exactly what will happen to money with Queen’s portrait on<\/a>READ MORE: King Charles III will get to decide exactly how long UK mourns Queen Elizabeth<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Following King Charles III’s ascent to the throne attention on him from both the media and on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[7709,7730,7731,560,1760,518,4575,7710,519],"class_list":{"0":"post-528932","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-british-royal-family","9":"tag-charles","10":"tag-charles-iii","11":"tag-exclusives","12":"tag-king-charles","13":"tag-king-charles-iii","14":"tag-queen","15":"tag-royal-families","16":"tag-royal-family"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115440001215706695","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2_GettyImages-1130749426.jpg\")
King Charles’ fingers have become a talking point online (Image: Getty Images)READ MORE: Queen’s pledge from 1947 remembered as she dies as Britain’s longest-serving monarch<\/a>READ MORE: Moment BBC Radio schedules brought to a halt by announcement of the Queen’s death<\/a><\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/6_GettyImages-1184262696.jpg\")
This picture of the King, often zoomed in on his hands, has been shared widely online (Image: Getty Images)READ MORE: Vile US professor doubles down on sick Queen tweet removed for ‘violating rules’<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Charles](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2_GettyImages-918607948.jpg\")
Charles is now King, and that comes with a lot of eyes looking over every detail (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n