Arnica: Miracle cure for bruising.

Wow, where did this last week go?! I'm hugely sorry for my sporadic blog writing lately, what with going back to work and looking for a new flat, sorting out all our stuff and trying to have a social life at the same time I'm not left with many spare minutes to write for you lovely people!

Today I want to let you know about a homeopathic remedy that is worth 10x its weight in gold - it barely weighs anything and is invaluable in my opinion! To give you its' definition from wikipedia:
"Arnica is a genus with about 30 perennial, herbaceous species, belonging to the sunflower family (Asteraceae). ... Several species, such as Arnica montana and Arnica chamissonis, contain helenalin, a sesquiterpene lactone that is a major ingredient in anti-inflammatory preparations (used mostly for bruises)."

As some of you will know, I recently had an operation and the particular area is well known for the bruising afterwards. I was warned by a lot of people that I'd be black and blue for a few weeks at least. A lovely lady I know from The Witches Brew gave me some really helpful advice as she'd recently had a similar op and she could not recommend Arnica highly enough. I'd heard of its' use for bruising before and adopted a "might as well" attitude, throwing it in with all the other pills I would be taking. I took it twice a day in the week running up to the surgery and about 4-5 times a day afterwards - starting from the moment I opened my eyes. (A lovely friend who was with me was in charge of forcing it upon me since I probably wouldn't have remembered myself!)

After the op the area was very swollen to about twice its' normal size, with yellow, purple and even black bruising. For the first few days I was oblivious to just how bad it was as I only looked briefly, but when I was feeling well enough for a proper look I was shocked at how battered I looked. I kept an eye on it all as time went on and within just 2 weeks the bruising was gone. No exaggeration required, the area was genuinely as if I'd never had the operation. Of course there is still the scar, I've not found a miracle cure for that yet, but just looking at the surrounding skin you'd never tell I had an operation.

Having never had surgery before I just thought it was normal, but having spoken to others about it since I realise it's actually really impressive. To quote Tom: "I've had bruises [from normal injuries] that last longer than that!" So I wanted to share with you all just how amazing this little pill is. It cost me about £6 (paid with Boots points) for 80 pills and I still have lots left, so it really is a little miracle. Plus it tastes quite sweet - which isn't exactly life or death in such a situation, but certainly helps!

So whether you're having an operation or have even just suffered a bad fall and there's some swelling/bruising that you would like to hurry up and disappear, I can highly recommend Arnica for your needs.

Has anyone else had any experiences with it?