What is arnica and how is it used?
David Hobbs, an integrative medicine specialist and licensed acupuncturist at Piedmont Healthcare’s Cancer Wellness Center, explains that “arnica is a plant-based compound that comes from a flower. It has been used in the complementary medicine world for 20 to 30 years.”Arnica is used in its homeopathic form and is often applied topically to help heal bruising, reduce swelling from injury, alleviate muscle soreness and help with post-surgery recovery, he says.
“Homeopathy is a system of healthcare that was developed more than 200 years ago by a German physician,” says Hobbs. “Basically, homeopathy means ‘like cures like.’ You give a little bit of the remedy or chemical to a person who has certain symptoms. In a healthy person [the treatment] would actually cause those symptoms. “The second major principle of homeopathy is the more diluted a substance is, the greater the effectiveness of it,” he continues. “The conundrum is that by the time you get down to a very potent homeopathic remedy, if you took this to a chemistry lab and looked for the active ingredient, there may not be a molecule of the substance there.”
Is there scientific proof that arnica works?
Hobbs says there are studies that have focused on athletic competitions to determine if arnica is effective. “For example, at a 1995 marathon in Oslo, Norway, they did a study where they applied the homeopathic topical treatments to leg muscles of runners the night before and after the marathon,” he says. “They compared them to a control group [that did not use arnica] and found that muscle soreness was reduced in those who were treated with the remedy. However, there was no difference in the cell damage in the muscles from running a marathon.”
Hobbs says that he would recommend topical homeopathic arnica to his clients who experience frequent bruising or muscle soreness. He also notes, “If somebody needs hard, concrete evidence before they try something, homeopathy is likely going to be outside their comfort zone.”