Amazing Arnica

The Healing Power of touch

More and more physios and sports therapists are turning to Massage Balm with Arnica when working with sports professionals - from premier league football teams and rugby clubs to ballet dancers. A massage is a great way to warm and loosen up muscles that are to be used intensively, for instance prior to a match or a long day on the ski slopes. This will help prevent injuries.

Massage is also recommended to relax and regenerate muscles as part of a gentle slowing and cooling down process after sports activities. This process breaks down lactic acid, so helping avoid stiff and aching muscles the next day if you have over done it or stopped play rather abruptly. The aromatic massage balm contains the alpine plant arnica montana, a natural anti-inflammatory famous for easing aches and pains. Arnica and birch together encourage blood flow, relaxing the muscles and preventing soreness. These natural ingredients are combined with the warming action of massage to soothe and revive, alleviating stress and pain, relaxing mind and body.

The Alpine Plant: arnica montana

Shepherds were among the first to note the benefits of Arnica Montana. They reported that sheep and goats grazing in the mountains would eat arnica when injured from falls, and recover swiftly - so they tried it themselves, and found the same effect (we do not recommend you try this as the raw plant can be toxic!).

Commonly known as Leopard's Bane or Mountain Tobacco, Arnica is a perennial with a creeping rhizome that sends up a rosette of small downy leaves in the first year. In the summer of its second year a tall stem with few leaves supports a large daisy-like yellow flower.

Arnica has been used as a remedy for bruising by physicians across Europe dating back to the 16th Century, although mentions of it go as far back as the 11th Century. Today the whole plant is often used in natural medicines, both fresh and dried, depending on the remedy.

Arnica soothes inflammation and dilates the blood vessels. Applied to the skin it promotes healing of damaged tissues, although it should not be applied to broken skin. It can also be taken orally in homeopathic form for a wide range of ailments, from shock and bereavement to travel sickness and jet lag. It's popular in family first aid kits, to help with accident upset and most kinds of trauma - even dental surgery. It's also extensively used in childbirth and recommended by many midwives.

Not surprisingly, arnica is a great sports remedy, popular with physios, massage therapists and sports injury specialists for treating soft tissue injuries and muscular pain externally. Over a dozen Premier League football teams and rugby clubs now buy and use Weleda's Arnica range.

For either professional or home use, our Massage Balm with Arnica - a wonderfully aromatic dark golden liquid - can help bring relief from rheumatic pain, muscular pain and stiffness, backache, fibrositis, bruising, cramp and sprains. Aching muscles caused by a strenuous burst of garden clearing, decorating, or cleaning may be soothed with some Arnica Massage Balm (as with all medicines, it is best to always read the label before you use it).

Our organic arnica is grown to strict biodynamic standards to ensure purity and quality. It's proved difficult to grow in abundance in our Derbyshire gardens, as it needs a well drained siliceous soil - lime is harmful to it even in small quantities. This alpine plant is happiest where there are certain bacteria in the soil, or it won't form runners. It also prefers colder climates, where it can lie beneath the snow in winter. So our arnica is grown in North East Scotland. The plants are harvested for tincture production at the end of June and transported in the cool early hours of the morning to be processed immediately, while the plants are fresh and full of vitality.

Article taken from Issue 26 of the Weleda Revue.