Arnica

This is one of the most famous homœopathic remedies. It is the first remedy to think of for injuries involving bruising, wounds and shock/panic. Any type of injury may be helped by Arnica but especially injury from blunt trauma. This includes post surgery, a dental visit, a fall, head injury, injury to the eye, a car accident, delivering a baby, and any time the person feels bruised and battered. It may even be of use when a person has never been well since an injury even if it was many years ago. Concussion may be helped with Arnica and may be given immediately following an accident while waiting for professional help to assess the condition of the patient.

There are two characteristic mental states seen when this remedy is required. Quite often the person will say “don’t touch me!” they are scared any touch will make them worse. There is a fear of being approached by others, a fear of penetration and sometimes a fear of sudden death. This state may result from Shock, either physical or mental.

The other state is “don’t worry about me, I’m alright” when their situation is quite serious and they need professional help. This later state can be a guiding symptom even for illnesses such as an upper respiratory tract infection.

Arnica is a good remedy for bleeding. If there is heavy bleeding with a threatening abortion, this remedy can be taken in high potency, hourly to help alleviate this – of course seek medical advise while taking the remedy.

Arnica is famous for its healing effects in bruising. A bruise is caused by injury to tiny blood vessels (capillaries) which burst, allowing blood to be trapped under the surface of the skin. An old term – Apoplexy, refers to a sudden rupture of blood vessels in the brain resulting with paralysis and unconsciousness, these days we call it a stroke.

The remedy is sometimes known as a homœopathic blood thinner or homœopathic aspirin. The pain in varicose veins, may be alleviated. It may also be of help when blood clots are present or suspected.

Two notable instances where I used Arnica are

1. Post delivering my son via cesarean. I didn’t need any pain killers at all!
2. When my son was about 2 years old, he fell off our verandah, a 2m drop. I gave Arnica 1M and he immediately stopped crying. His Dad called an ambulance and we had 8 hours in hospital under observation for possible concussion but were sent home as nothing was noted.

It is not necessary to give Arnica for every single bump and bruise. And it should not be taken immediately prior to surgery.