Arnica and similar remedies

Arnica montana is most likely the most widely used homeopathic remedy in the world, even without a prescription: a name well known as symptomatic by common users, therapists and doctors with varying degrees of training in so-called classical homeopathic therapy. Arnica, like Apis, Belladonna, Colocynthis, Hepar sulphur, Mezereum and many others, has traditionally been used for acute suffering, forgetting that both before and after the particular way of falling ill described in the provings, there is much, much more. For most remedies, the clinical experience of what precedes and follows the emerging phase of the provings is, all in all, easily observable: homeopathic symptoms, common syndromes and pathologies, particular behaviours, anxieties, fears, phobias … both in the early and late years of life.
Arnica and its similars are an excellent example of a very different organisation; if there are no traumatic experiences, which are extremely difficult to deal with, a good part of these remedies are well known for the first part of their apparently healthy life, an almost enviable condition, an experience of almost no illness or discomfort, often triumphing in their excellent resilience and quick recovery.
Our literature, however, also describes something of the overt imbalance of Arnica and its similars: patients which cannot tolerate themselves as a patient. Someone who, despite his ailments, refuses to see a doctor or take medicine and, if anything, manages his own treatment. A patient who sees doctors and healthcare facilities as the cause of his problems, which began when he is forced to deal with them.
Serious inflammatory diseases with fatal outcomes are not uncommon in soma: after years of well-being and an impeccable, healthy lifestyle, their own bodies betray them.
The alpha and omega of Arnica are not easy to investigate and in most cases it is the patient himself who does not participate, does not want to, cannot. Even when they are forced to, they use every strategy to be elusive. If my interpretation, if my experience with Arnica-like patients, is really worthy of reflection, then it may not be so difficult to understand why such an interesting remedy, so rich in homeopathic symptoms in our repertory, so useful in chronic conditions, can be downgraded to one of the most acute remedies in our literature.
Other remedies, similar to Arnica but botanically different, such as Hamamelis virginiana and Hydrastis canadensis, can easily be confused with the prince of vulneraries: a concept of homeopathic taxonomy already introduced in the text on Oils, a cornerstone of the Method of Complexity centred on the analogies of homeopathic clinical practice, which I clearly prefer to other grouping hypotheses.
This sixth volume proposes a group of remedies whose progenitor is well known but at the same time superficially described in our literature. Yet in the past, the little mountain flower was not only used for the outcome of trauma or abscesses (then potentially fatal) but also for varicose veins, diabetes, deforming arthritis, heart failure, tuberculosis and tumors.
Natural history, materia medica, clinical cases with long follow-up and authorised by the patient, repertory additions, differential diagnosis. Summary of the fundamental themes, characteristics, coherent groups of symptoms, motifs, pathologies and syndromes successfully treated in my personal case history for the following remedies:
1) Arnica montana
2) Achillea millefolium
3) Bellis perennis
4) Calendula officinalis
5) Erigeron canadensis
6) Eupatorium perfoliatum
7) Eupatorium purpureum
8) Gnaphalium polycephalum
9) Helianthus annuum
10) Cina officinalis
11) Chamomilla vulgaris
12) Leontopodium alpinum
13) Hydrastis canadensis
12) Hamamelis virginiana