I'm finding this debate very interesting, as it is pulling out a lot of the internal debates I have with myself. Having moved to France 7 years ago, I was surprised to find how widespread homeopathy is...many pharmacists and some GPs will offer homeopathic alternatives to OTC medicines. The vets seem to mix up allopathic and homeopathic when it comes to minor treatments. For example, I came away from my local vet with Carpodryl (NSAID) and a homeopathic cream to treat a dog with a sore leg. I didn't ask for homeopathic cream, but that's what was prescribed.

Whenever I have asked a pharmacist, vet or doctor why I should use a homeopathic treatment, I get a Gallic shrug and 'Ca marche' (it works)

As a scientist, I just can't get my head around how on earth homeopathy can work. But surely the French wouldn't keep forking out for homeopathic remedies if they didn't work? And surely highly trained scientists like doctors, vets and pharmacists can't be that easily duped?

So I am sitting in the fence, and trying to keep an open mind. I don't think that some homeopathic practitioners help their cause by trying to explain how it works, and making wild claims. But equally, I don't think 'straight' scientists help by saying that it's clearly rubbish. Why do we have to understand in exact detail how something works if we can see it working? We didn't understand how dragonflies could fly until a few years ago, but it didn't stop them flying. So maybe the debate should be less about how it can work, and more about whether it works at all.

You make some very good points here, such as the general mixing up of homeopathy and the general indifference to it, it works so why should we look into it?

One thing I would point out is, because a lot of people subscribe or support a notion, does not make it true. Everyone used to think that smoking had no ill effects, and now its regarded properly as a highly addictive and dangerous habit. All of our scientists, and governments were wrong about this, and they will continue to be wrong on other things.

You are absolutely right when you say that homeopathic practitioners certainly do not help their own cause, as illustrated by the BBC study when 10 out of 10 homeopaths were found to be giving out lethal advice regarding malaria, the scariest thing is these doctors were simply chosen at random, not from bad reports of misconduct, but entire at random.
Sadly the homeopathic society refused to further regulate its members and these "doctors" still practice despite endangering all of their patients.

I remain open minded about it however, if it can ever be proven to work then ill certainly accept it, however it is impossible for me or anyone else to prove that it cant, the burden of proof is on the practitioners and as long as they refuse to do proper thorough testing then I will maintain my position that they are irresponsibly putting the lives of patients at risk, be they human or animal.

So far homeopathy has had 300 years to prove how it works, and its not managed a good job so far, where as its opposite has been proven quite thoroughly to be effective.

I'll have a look now - Thank you xx

Whatever you decide to use to address the issues, I hope it works out for you and Bailey