Why do I bruise so easily

Bruising is a typical bodily reaction after someone receives a knock or a blow to any part of their body. The blow causes capillaries near the surface of the skin to break. The capillaries subsequently leak blood, which causes the formation of the typical bluish mark that we are all so familiar with.

It is common for us to pick up more bruises as we get older as aging weakens capillary walls and our skin also thins, making us much more susceptible to the bruising reaction to even minor blows and knocks that might not have registered when we were younger. Also, certain medicines can make us more prone to bruising such as aspirin as it interferes with blood clotting. This would also be true of any blood thinning medications. Alongside this supplements such as garlic, fish oil and ginkgo can also raise the likelihood of bruising.

Bruising may also deplete the body of iron stores, as the blood leaked by the capillaries to form bruises means that we lose the iron stored in the red blood cells. Additionally bruising may indicate more serious issues, such as problems with the platelets in the blood for example. Drinking too much alcohol can also make a person more susceptible to bruising, as, like aspirin, alcohol consumption thins the blood and allows for easier leakage with a lack of clotting to happen. You may well also bruise more easily if you are deficient in vitamin C as well as if you are afflicted by certain liver or kidney conditions. Vitamin C is required whenever our bodies are subjected to stresses of any kind, as stress stimulates the adrenal gland and a molecule of vitamin C is required to produce a molecule of adrenaline.

Some bleeding disorders will also put you at increased susceptibility of bruising, including such conditions as hemophilia – a potentially debilitating condition where the body lacks the ability to form blood clots and stop bleeding. Bruises can be painful, and can also be serious, leading to potentially fatal conditions such as a hemotoma when linked with such injuries as fractures and extreme internal bleeding. A bruise can denote the existence of such a condition after more extreme blunt trauma and if any serious damage is thought to exist a further investigation by a qualified medical professional should be sought at once.

Chronic bruising can also occur not simply from being careless and receiving regular physical trauma but if any internal strain is regularly aggravated. Minor internal bleeding can exhibit itself later on as a bruise if the pressure created by the internal bleeding induces too much strain on the external capillary layer within our body, thus causing a dispersion of pressure across the skin. This may happen with repeated strains or other internal issues such as blood flow changes due to differences in air pressure, particularly if an old injury was not treated properly at the time it should have been, so bear this in mind if you have an old injury and are particularly susceptible to pressure differentiations.