Homeopathy is said to offer a gentle, safe option, with no side effects.

In a homeopath’s view, if a disease manifests itself on the skin, it actually indicates that the body is externalising symptoms, which in a way is better than having internal symptoms that would suggest far more serious issues.

Yet, skin conditions often affect individuals profoundly, leading to low self-esteem and deeper emotional issues.

It is a sad fact that, by the time clients with skin problems visit a homeopath, they would have already been subjected to a variety of oral, topical and even injectable suppressive medications.

We are all born with a natural healing system; optimal utilisation of this depends on not tampering with nature by assaulting our bodies with promises of temporary relief, which may push relatively minor skin issues into deeper, immunological pathology.

Corticosteroids actually suppress your immune allergic response. These perhaps initially ‘help’ but actually impair the body’s ability to ward off infection, making us susceptible to much more serious issues down the line.

Often we see children with infant eczema treated allopathically, resulting in asthma and/or allergies within a few years, or adults with psoriasis who are treated conventionally and then suffer from sporic arthritis in the long term.

We are all born with a natural healing system; optimal utilisation of this depends on not tampering with nature

Case management is paramount in homeopathy. There are no protocols and every case is treated separately. Whether we are consulted initially or as a last resort, we base our prescription on the totality of our client’s symptoms.

It makes sense that to treat the skin we need to look at the kidneys, liver, lungs, bowels and mind; it is all about balance and harmony. Homeopathy is holistic, so ‘maintaining causes’ and, perhaps, sometimes obvious advice is offered to clients in follow-up sessions.

Lifestyle issues, constipation, dehydration, leaky gut toxicity, hormone imbalances and blocked lymphatics are all what we term as ‘maintaining causes’ in skin complaints. All these factors need to be addressed in combination with the prescribed remedy.

Teen acne is a case in point: for me to only offer homeopathic remedies and not advise the client to try and limit (hormone-filled) meat, dairy products, fast foods, sugar and alcohol would delay a healing response.

Homeopathy offers a gentle, safe option, with no side effects, no hefty financial obligations and one that, ideally, should be your first port of call and not your last.

Of course, there are less dangerous acute skin conditions which homeopathy treats wonderfully. The remedy Apis, used acutely for bee and jellyfish stings, is made from the humble bumble bee, Cantharis, an amazing remedy for burning skin pains, is made from a beetle and, finally, the ultimate skin remedy sulphur, whose uses are too numerous to note but is arguably the most widely used remedy when it comes to skin issues.

Homeopathy has been criticised by the medical profession and sceptics in general but it has grown stronger with the passage of time. It is used by millions around the world with success – from the slums of India to the palaces of England – and I see it daily in my practice.

My answer to its critics: does science have all the answers?