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Amazing Arnica: our favourite first aid


Arnica is best known for relieving “pain due to trauma”, such as when you accidentally stub your toe, bash your head on a cupboard door, hit your thumb with the hammer, or fall over and bruise yourself. At times like that, the results have astonished many people.

 

It is a wild member of the Sunflower family. As a herb, its properties are well documented. As a homeopathic, it is renowned in the homeopathic community, and beloved by many. However, homeopathic Arnica has not been studied in many clinical trials. Being a gentle energy medicine, with no side effects unless you really overdo it, those who are willing to try it find it so helpful and benign, that this remedy has helped many people to start appreciating the benefits of homeopathic treatments.

 

Dr Penny jokes that when people say “Homeopathy doesn’t work” she wants to kick them in the shins and then give them Arnica: then they would appreciate its benefits! 

 

It also works when trauma is not accidental: for example a surgery to benefit you involves trauma that is pre-planned and neatly executed. Over and over again, our patients who use Arnica report being told they have healed up and become more active sooner than expected after a surgery. And avoiding the constipation of using codeine-based pain killers can be another significant benefit.


Dr Penny had 3 teeth pulled out in one day, and suffered no pain, bruising or swelling, because she used Arnica. And there is nothing to stop you using Arnica, and topping up with regular western medicine painkillers if you feel the need: they don’t interact, and work by such different mechanisms. The way you can tell what’s doing what is usually by the speed of pain reduction: regular pain killers generally take about 20 minutes to kick in, Arnica only takes very few minutes.


Do note that it is not likely to work for every kind of pain: is not an overall pain killer, but specific to a bruised, sore kind of pain. And while this can be from one big bash, it can also be from overdoing it: gardening, going to the gym, or for long run, especially if it’s the first time in a while and your muscles aren’t used to it. That’s a case of lots of little traumas to the muscles as they are pushed to work longer and harder than they’d like. 


Arnica is the remedy the Queen is said to have provided for her guests if they hurt themselves. It was reputed to be one of her helpers against jet-lag, and we use it that way in combination with other homeopathics. You may find the remedy “No Jet Lag” in your health food store. While it may not completely eliminate jet leg, we find it certainly helps reduce it.


Arnica is available as a gel that can be rubbed on bruised sore tissues, and it’s good for that. It is one of the ingredients in Traumacare cream, which is a broad spectrum gentle homeopathic cream for bumps and bruises.


Homeopathic Arnica pellets, on the other hand, can deal with much more intense pain and trauma, especially if you have a practitioner who can guide you in using higher potencies. But the 30CH potency that is available in many health food stores and pharmacies, can help a lot. And there’s nothing to stop you using it both in pellet form by mouth, and topically as a cream or gel.


Here are some ways we like to use arnica:

 

  • First aid for bashes, bumps and bruises, for people of any age

  • Aches from overdoing exercise or physical work

  • After surgery, including dental surgery


Do note that the effects of Arnica (as for all homeopathics) are undone by the smells of camphor, menthol and eucalyptus. So muscle rubs like Ben Gay and Vic’s VapoRub will antidote arnica, and you will lose its benefits.

Here are some of our personal experiences that illustrate how powerful and gentle Arnica can be:

 

Dr Penny walked into the angled edge of pillar in her bedroom, the day before giving a public talk, taking a significant hit to her eyebrow. It would have been a shiner! But she took a strong dose of Arnica immediately, and applied Traumacare cream, and next day had to part her eyebrow hairs to see the very minor discolouration there.


Dr Ruth Anne’s nephew had just started walking, and he fell and hit his forehead on a ceramic tiled floor. You could see a goose-egg forming on his forehead immediately. After one dose of Arnica the swelling started to subside and he stopped howling: always a good sign! The next day he had just a tiny bruise, about the size of a fingerprint. 


Dr Penny’s kitten was neutered and the vet provided morphine. But instead Penny gave Arnica: one strong dose after surgery, and again when he hid under a chair and his eyes narrowed from pain. He emerged from under that chair a minute later and was fine thereafter. And animals are so honest: their behaviour tells it all!


We like to keep Arnica in our first aid kits at home and in the car, because you never know when you’ll need it.

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