Let's talk bruise removal

[IronFist]

Aside from dit da jow, what do you use? The only thing I've heard is Arnica Gel.

How do bruise removal agents work? Do they actually cause the area (shin, heh) to heal faster, or do they just take the color away so it doesn't look like there's a bruise there anymore?

Anything that you know works. No heresay. Something you have experience with.

Thanks.

[Yum Cha]

From my understanding, its about circulation. Bruises are essentially crushed tissue to a greater or lesser degree. The blood pools in the crushed tissue and dies, or clotts. Over time, it is re-adsorbed into the bloodstream and the broken capillaries and crushed tissue heal, with some scarring you would assume.

Jau is generally something to increase circulation, and teamed with massage speeds the removal of the standing blood, increasing healthy blood flow, which in turn improves healing.

Chinese medicine doesn't like bruises because the clotts are released into the blood stream, and can cause problems, thus they treat bruises quite actively, thus their focus on Jau and its use.

Is it magic, better than gen gay? who knows, my experience has some un-explained extreme effectiveness, for what its worth.

Boxers have traditionally had the "rub down" after training, using witchazel or the like, to me thats not all that different.

Hope this has been of some help.

[joedoe]

Yum Cha is essentially right. A bruise results from broken blood vessels (in most cases capillaries) leaking blood into the surrounding tissue. Bruise removal agents try to disperse the bruise by improving circulation and moving the blood that forms the bruise out of the muscle tissue.

As for the effectiveness of jow, I have used it for many years and have found it does seem to speed up the dispersion of a bruise by a few days.

[Vash]

Why get rid of the bruise? Mine usually go away in a week or so.

Of course, I'm not as pretty as most, so I've never really bothered with them. Cuoldn't hurt nuthin.

[Toby]

Yeah, I use dit da jow. Problem is, you're never going to get two exactly the same bruises at the same time to put jow on one and not on the other so you'll never know if it speeds up healing or not. I like it though. It smells good and feels good :D. Works for me.

[Chang Style Novice]

I recommend a 120 grit sandpaper (or coarser, depending on the darkness of the bruise.)

[IronFist]

Why make them go away sooner? So you can train again sooner.

[Serpent]

Yeah, that's one reason. Also, dit da jow will promote better conditioning responses, toughening up the conditioned areas.

[Becca]

I also find that a soak in very hot water help, so long as the bruise in not already fully formed. Jaw also works best if applied right away, in my experience. I use it on my sons to keep them from looking like one mass of purple.

I once put it on my youngest boy after he bonked his head learning to walk. It looked like a good sized goose-egg was formming. I put Jow on it every 2 hours for the rest of the day. When he woke up the next morning the only sign of th e injurry was the fieghnt yellow from the Jow being left on.