An amusing thing about old wives’ tales is that they are actually sometimes true. As an example, it wasn’t that long ago, that we had no idea about how good things like blueberries and apple cider vinegar could be for us. However, the opposite can also be true, and you’ll find out that there are a host of old wives tales around that get passed around as fact, particularly when we are talking about natural situations like bruising. Bruises last varying lengths of time for everybody, and it can be very convenient to think that someone has found a miracle remedy for bruising, when the truth just might just be that someone has an exceptional immune system. Spend the time required to weed out any of these purported cures that might have been passed on to you as the best bruise treatment ever. You will probably find that there just aren’t any silver bullets.

Massaging the Bruise

While massaging the bruise can break up the blood clot, massaging the bruise is only going soothe the area if done gently or aggravate the area if done too roughly. While a massage can be very gentle, you’ll find that it stimulates the flow of blood to the area. When you are dealing with broken blood vessels, this is not something that you want to encourage at this point. If you do end up wanting to massage the area, do it very gently and with the expectation that you may be making the discoloration worse.

Black Pepper

I’ve heard an old wives’ tales about how pepper can actually make the blood leave the bruise location. Pepper may contain substances in it that can ease the pain a small amount, but if the truth be known, the application of pepper onto your bruise is probably just going to make a mess. There are other cures that do the exact same thing and do it in a much better way, so just leave the pepper in its shaker.

Baking Soda

We are now getting to remedies that may help out a little bit, but probably not nearly as well as people say. Baking soda may be very helpful when you’re trying to calm down irritated (as in burned) skin, and it might actually soothe part of the inflammation out, but the truth of the matter is that it will not help with a bruise that is overly dark, and it is not going to make the bruise heal any faster.

Raw Meat

We’ve all heard this one, and a lot of us have seen, or perhaps we have even experienced, but raw meat, no matter how expensive the cut, is unable to help you cure the bruise. I’ve listened to plenty of discussions over what variety of meat is best suited for the job, and the simple fact is that they are all similar. The only benefit for putting raw meat against a bruise is that it presumably just came out of the freezer, and the coldness may help reduce swelling. The meat should be on your dinner plate, not on a bruise.

Try to determine which, if any, of these old wives’ tales is going to be beneficial for you, and which ones are just so much bunk. Discover a remedy that actually works for you, and leave these old, purported remedies for others.