On a recent quad biking experience, Little Miss managed to crash into a tree and fall down a ditch. Thankfully, apart from a small cut and some HUGE bruises, she was fine, and even went quad biking again.
The bruises were of some concern to me because not only was the big one on her leg causing her some discomfort, but they looked awful. I had heard about arnica being good for bruises, but never having used it before, I did a little bit of a finding out exercise before rushing out to buy it.
WHAT IS IT? Arnica (Arnica montana) has been used for medicinal purposes since the 1500s and remains popular today to soothe muscle aches, reduce inflammation, and heal wounds and it is often the first remedy used for injuries such as sprains and bruises. Arnica in herbal form is primarily restricted to external use because it can cause serious side effects when taken internally, however, prolonged use may irritate the skin, causing eczema, peeling, blisters, or other skin conditions.
So, it sounds ok, and if it’s being used for that long, then it can’t do any harm given that she wasn’t going to be taking it internally or for long periods of time.
PRODUCT AND PACKAGING...
The 30g tube of cream comes in a box with all the instructions on the back of the box as well as an information leaflet inside the box. It tells me what i had already read about arnica, that it is used for the symptomatic treatment of bruises and that it can be used on adults and children.
I open the tube and break open the seal, and find that the cream is white with a very faint paraffin smell. When I apply it to the skin, it does take some rubbing in, probably because of the paraffin, which I imagine makes it lie on the skin.
USING IT...
This is for external use only and should not be used on broken skin. If the bruised person is not allergic to any of the ingredients, then it should be applied gently to the bruised area; this is especially important because it doesn’t get absorbed easily into the skin, so no vigorous rubbing!
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY...
Available online at www.boots.com or instore, this cost £4.25 for a 30g tube of the stuff, but it does go a long way.
VERDICT...
I was quite doubtful as to how this would actually work and in fact still don’t know how it does what it does. However, within a couple of days a bruise which was absolutely enormous and very sore had subsided into nothing more than a faint mark. Having read the warnings about the possible side effects we did use it only twice a day for two days and once the bruise was well and truly on its way out, we stopped using it.
Although I was sceptical about it actually working, I don’t think that a bruise of that size would have gone down so quickly, and so I will certainly use it again if anyone gets bruises.
This is highly recommended if not understood.
Thanks for reading.
Daniela x
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