Arnica

The homeopathic remedy Arnica montana is made from the plant commonly know as "Fall Herb"

Botany

Arnica is a member of the Daisy or Compositae family and has large yellow flowers. It grows in cool, damp mountainous areas or on waste ground or inhospitable soil with little nourishment and a lot of 'foot traffic'.

Here it gets walked on often and few other plants are able to survive such difficult conditions. We could say, therefore, that Arnica is a stoic and quite macho plant.

Translating this into the human situation we might say something like: "Life is hard and tough. I get beaten but I will not complain. I can take the knocks."

Key symptoms

Arnica has become a very common acute remedy for injury, trauma and shock particularly to soft tissue such as muscles. It can be used in a number of first aid situations such as injuries with a blunt instrument, knocks and bangs, sprains, pulls and bad bruises or after any kind of surgery including after the extraction of teeth.

It is also used routinely after childbirth and is very helpful for concussion. The type of pain that indicates an arnica situation is sore and bruised and the pain is made worse for cold, movement and at night.

The patient is very sensitive to pain. Emotionally, patients requiring this remedy tend to be defensive and irritable.They are anxious about people getting to close to them and particularly have a fear of being touched.

They may say they are well even when they are not and send the doctor away.They can be restless because of the soreness and may feel as if the bed is too hard for them. The remedy can also be used for people who have chronic problems with haemorrage or ailments such as gout and rheumatism.

Summary

An invaluable first aid remedy for bruising and shock after a blow or fall to help stimulate a rapid recovery.