How Does Arnica Help With Bruising?

Video Transcript

Speaker: Anar Mikailov MD FAAD:

Arnica promotes the clearing of bruising by helping, how our white blood cells work to metabolize and clear each individual bruise. Let's briefly discuss bruises.

Arnica and bruising

Bruises form when red blood cells leak out of capillaries under the skin, into the space, just around the capillaries. This leakage often happens from physical trauma, but on many occasions, bruises can form almost spontaneously, especially in individuals on baby aspirin or blood thinners.

Arnica for thin and thinning skin

As a side note, the most common cause of bruising is thinning of skin and fragility of the capillaries under the skin from many years of UV radiation from the sun. We know that white blood cells are responsible for most of the work to clear bruises in our skin and arnica enhances flow of white blood cells through our system. And this is why we hypothesize that arnica is responsible and able to more quickly clear bruises.

Arnica for post operative care

In addition to active bruise clearance, arnica has become a favorite for preventing bruising after procedures like fillers, Botox, and lasers. When used very early after these procedures, arnica based creams can actually prevent bruising.