Arnica: the homeopathic panacea

Arnica is the remedy that first brings many people to homeopathy. So many parents swear by it for reducing golf-ball bruises on their kids’ knees within minutes. Made from the leopard’s bane plant, it’s the number one remedy for accidents and emergencies – no household should be without it! Carry it in your handbag… store it in your glove compartment… pack it in your suitcase…

 When to use…

• Bruises
• Any sudden injury
• Muscle pain & sports injuries
• Overdone it! After a hard day’s skiing/gardening/exercise
• Shock & trauma/scene of an accident
• Bad news/bereavement
• During/after childbirth
• After surgery or dental work

Available as tablets and in numerous other forms, from cream to massage balm, this little panacea of a remedy is one of the few homeopathic medicines that is licensed. Astrogel Arnica Gel is approved by the UK’s medicines regulatory body, the MRHA, as a product ‘for the symptomatic relief of muscular aches, pains and stiffness and sprains, bruises and swelling’. But, as a homeopathic pill, the remedy’s scope is way way broader than merely soothing and healing minor injuries.

Arnica is a remedy for shock. This can be the shock of a minor bump or scrape for a child, right through to the shock of childbirth (both for mother and child) and the shock of bereavement or the news you’ve just been made redundant. Everyone at the scene of an accident would benefit from arnica: those in the accident, bystanders, rescue services alike. Picture someone in a daze at the scene, or the person newly bereaved who is coping ‘fine’ on autopilot with all the arrangements for the funeral, and you have the time when arnica can be most beneficial – enabling someone to really deal with the shock of what they have experienced and to grieve or recover, or whatever is best, without burying their feelings.

Under treatment from a qualified homeopath arnica can even be given (in high-potency doses) for when someone’s health, emotional or physical, has never been the same since a big shock or trauma such as an accident or death of a partner. Arnica is also one of key constituents of my jetlag combo – for the bombardment to the system of crossing time zones and lack of sleep when you fly.

The Natural Health Hub stocks a range of arnica products:

• Arnica tablets
• Weleda Arnica Muscle Soak
• Weleda Arnica Massage Balm
• Helios Arnica Cream
• Weleda Arnica Bumps & Bruises Spray

Buy one of our arnica range and you get a free arnica bookmark to remind you of the many uses of this versatile homeopathic remedy. As I said, no household should be without it…

Sue Leach, homeopath