May is an important month for Homeopaths here in Australia as it marks the celebration of Homeopathy Awareness Week (13^th – 19^th May). This year the theme is “Homeopathy To The Rescue” and the focus is on the ways Homeopathy can, and has been used in the treatment of trauma and disasters.

The purpose of this annual celebration is to get you all noticing the impact Homeopathy has on a global scale and to start you thinking about how Homeopathy could be useful in your life.

While there is a long history of Homeopathy being used with wonderful results during epidemics  and after disasters , using Homeopathic medicine to deal with the small traumas of your everyday life is where many people first encounter the healing benefits of the remedies.

Homeopathic Arnica is one remedy that I would have been lost without in raising my four sons, and in fact I cannot imagine how the Mums of active boys manage without it. When my boys were young they played a lot of sport, basketball, AFL football, baseball, hockey, netball, gymnastics, and rockclimbing, to say nothing of rough and rowdy games through the bushland around our home.

In addition to the kit of remedies I have at home, I always carried a Homeopathic First Aid kit in the boot of my car so we would have what we needed when we were out and about. In this kit was trusty Arnica.

Homeopaths often reach for Arnica as the first remedy to heal anyone affected by shock, trauma or injury, where it acts on the emotional or spiritual shock as well as on the physical shock.

Arnica has lots of uses but it is perhaps best known for its use when there is damage to soft tissue. It has amazing healing properties for muscle damage showing in symptoms such as bruising, swelling and aching. At sporting events, particularly football, I soon became known as the go-to-girl for help when the boys were hurt on the field, and would often have parents come to me asking for some arnica for their son.

I have to say that one year it actually saved one of my sons team from despair, because Arnica was the remedy that ensured the team a place in the Grand Final (which they then won!) How? At half time the star player, the full forward (the one who does most of the goal scoring) was taken off the field because his hand had been stomped on by a boot with ‘stops’ on the sole and there were four distinct dark bruises on his palm. I gave him one dose of Arnica at the start of half time, and by the time the second half started twenty minutes later, the bruising had almost disappeared so he was allowed to play, and to go on and kick the winning goal.

Over the course of many years of kids sport there were many, many other instances of parents being able to watch bruising or swellings, like ‘eggs’ on the head, actually go right down over a very short time, and so the Arnica was often sought out.

Arnica got these boys through the injuries with minimal fuss and allowed them to get back out to their game.

Arnica is a remedy that I give to many of my patients and not just the boys. Many people use it after they have had a big workout at the gym, or a hard day in the garden to relieve the aches and pains. Others use it after having dental work. It is a remedy that many now value in their home first aid kit, and the first remedy they think of for injuries and trauma.

What is Arnica?

Homeopathic Arnica Montana is made from a small plant of the Compositae family. It grows in the mountain pastures of mainland Europe where for centuries it has a long history of use as a herbal to treat bruises, sprains, rheumatic pain, emotional shock, hematoma and oedema.

Today, Arnica creams are widely used in the sports industry, and in fact  a number of Olympic athletes have found them helpful in reaching the pinnacle of their chosen sport. Here is the testimony of one and here a long list of other sports stars using Homeopathic Arnica.

Arnica has an affinity with the blood vessels, repairing them so that bruising and stagnation is able to dissipate from the site of the wound.

The benefit of Arnica, as you read in the story of my son’s football team, is that it speeds up the healing process. The bruising passes quickly, aching muscles return to normal faster, swelling subsides quickly, allowing a faster return to training, the game, or everyday activity.

When could you use Arnica?

Although I make some suggestions here for when Arnica may be helpful, I do not advocate using it without consulting your Homeopath first. Whilst Homeopathic remedies are very gentle they need to be prescribed with an understanding of how they work in order to be used effectively and safely. In addition if you have a seious accident or injury it is essential to get checked out for concussions, broken bones or other serious damage. But, even when these do occur Arnica can be useful to speed the healing process.

• After accidents where there is shock
• After an injury that leaves bruising of muscles
• After an injury that leaves soft tissue swollen and sore
• After over-exerting yourself
• After surgery or dental work

Because Homeopathy Awareness Week is about using Homeopathy to deal with trauma this year, I am once again running my very popular short course “HOMEOPATHY @ HOME – TREATING ACUTE & FIRST AID AILMENTS”   beginning during Homeopathy Awareness Week, where you learn when and how to use thirty Homeopathic remedies, including Arnica, that will completely change the way you deal with acute illnesses and accidents in your family.

If you have missed this course but would like to join one later, check back again for details of the next course as I run it once every year.

If you would like to read about the latest research and thoughts on how Homeopathy might work, you may like to read Dana Ullman’s summary in this article published last week in The Huffington Post

But for those who have used Homeopathic medicine with enormous success the question is NOT how it works, or even whether it works. They have seen many times, that it does work effectively and that is enough reason to continue to love and use this remarkable treatment.

I don’t know how it works, nobody does yet. No doubt as research delves deeper and our knowledge grows, just how Homeopathic medicines work will become clearer. After all, in medicine there are also many medications and anaesthetics that were used and seen to be effective, long before the mechanism of how they work was known.

If you have had a positive experience with using Homeopathic Arnica let us know about it in the comments below.

Disclaimer.

All information and opinions presented here are for information only and are not intended as a substitute for professional advice offered during a consultation. Please consult with your health care provider before trying any of the treatment suggested on this site. 

Source articles:

http://www.arnica.com.au/arnica.php

http://www.fao.org/ag/AGp/agpc/doc/Gbase/data/pf000462.htm

http://www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail182.php

http://drnancymalik.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/sports-medicine/

http://homeopathyforyou.com.au/trauma/arnica-to-the-rescue-for-injuries/