Bruising Easily: Causes, Treatment, When to Get Care

When you bump against an object, your body normally responds by forming clots to stop the bleeding, which prevents bruising. But sometimes your blood isn’t able to form clots as it should. A doctor can perform tests to see whether a person has a vitamin deficiency. In other cases, an underlying health condition, such as inflammatory bowel disease, may need addressing. Liver disease can affect blood clotting, increasing the risk of bleeding and easy bruising.

Focusing All Attention On Drinking

When the cause of bruising is unclear, your doctor will likely order blood work to check for platelet problems or other blood clotting abnormalities. Unfortunately, once a bruise has formed, not much can be done to treat it. Most bruises eventually disappear as the body reabsorbs the blood, although healing might take longer as you age. However, if you bruise easily, even a minor bump can result in a substantial bruise. A fall, blow, or other impact that exerts sudden high pressure on the skin can cause a bruise. Very forceful blows can damage bones, causing deep bleeding and bruises that take several weeks to heal.

Medications

And when the blood vessels underneath your skin break, it causes blood to leak out. Here’s a look at why bruises become more common with age, plus what you can do to keep the bumps at do you bruise easier when drunk bay. Research indicates Cushing Syndrome is caused by prolonged exposure to high circulating levels of cortisol. “Excess cortisol can lead to increased bruising,” Dr. Posnia says.

vasculitis and alcohol

Actinic purpura is harmless, but it can cause a person to have blotchy purple spots on their skin, especially on the backs of their hands, neck, face or forearms, the National Library of Medicine notes. But as we get older, those blotches can start to show up more easily. Get health information you can use, fact-checked by Nebraska Medicine experts. Type 1 is the mildest, type 2, and type 3 which is the most severe.

Consult With Confidant’s Online Doctors For Alcohol Treatment

As liver functioning declines from chronic alcohol misuse, a person is likely to bleed and bruise easily. There are several causes of bruises after drinking; some of these causes are not particularly serious, whereas others could point to a health problem. Perhaps the most common cause of bruising from alcohol is that alcohol acts as a vasodilator, making blood vessels larger. There are many other potential causes of bruising, including injury, certain medications, and underlying medical conditions.

• The fatty layer that provides some protection against bruising also thins with aging.
• On dark skin tones, purpura may appear purple or as darker skin.
• Most of these causes aren’t serious and don’t require treatment.

To find the cause of your bruising, your health care provider will likely do a physical exam and ask questions about your symptoms and medical history. Your provider might also check your blood platelet levels or do tests that measure the time it takes your blood to clot. Easy bruising can be a sign of an underlying condition and a higher risk of bleeding overall. Risk factors for easy bruising include older age and taking blood-thinning medications. Dilated blood vessels can make bleeding more likely when you drink.

Blood and Platelet Disorders

• A bruise happens when your capillaries (small blood vessels near the surface) are traumatized, Arielle Nagler, M.D., dermatologist and instructor of dermatology at NYU Langone Medical Center, tells SELF.
• When drinking becomes compulsive, as is the case with alcohol use disorder, a person may place themselves in danger when consuming alcohol, because drinking becomes more important than safety.
• Easy bruising might suggest you lack enough vitamin K, found in leafy green vegetables, broccoli and Brussels sprouts.
• Anti-inflammatory medications, like steroids (used to treat conditions such as asthma, hives, psoriasis and allergies), can also cause easy bruising, thanks to their skin-thinning effects.

One common sign of alcoholic hepatitis is jaundice, where the skin and whites of your eyes look yellowish. Stopping alcohol abruptly after long-term heavy drinking can also lead to alcohol withdrawal syndrome, which commonly manifests as symptoms like nausea and vomiting. Research studies on the association between weight gain and alcohol consumption have ended in conflicting results. In other words, weight gain isn’t inevitable, but you could still tip the scale up from drinking too much alcohol.