This Is Why You Bruise So Easily

Unsplash/Lucaxx Freire

How many times have you barely bumped your knee on the coffee table, your thigh on a chair or your arm on the counter and found a bruise there the following day? Us, too, and we can’t believe how easily we bruise sometimes! So we decided to do a little digging and found out the potential reasons behind this unsavory discoloration of our skin.

In general, bruising is what happens when blood vessels burst and leak blood underneath the skin’s surface. (It sounds worse than it is — we promise.) It’s that blood that creates the blemish that changes color over time and eventually fades away entirely as the blood gets reabsorbed by your body. Bruising is more likely to occur if your skin is on the thinner side, you lack additional fat in the outer layer of your skin and you have more fragile blood vessels toward that outer layer of skin. Those predisposing factors can be present for a multitude of reasons. Here are a few of the common ones.

Unsplash/freestocks

Your Genes

If you notice that your grandmother and mother bruise easily, too, you could just be genetically predisposed to having more fragile blood vessels, which makes you more likely to bruise on your upper arms, thighs and butt.

Your Age

Yep — the older you get, the thinner your skin becomes and the less fat your skin retains. Your skin also has a more difficult time of holding on to collagen and elastin. Plus, you just don’t heal as quickly as you once did. Therefore, you’re more prone to bruising, and no anti-aging skincare routine can really prevent it. Sigh.

Your Supplement Routine

If you take aspirin regularly or pop fish oil every morning to keep your fatty acids in check, you could be extra susceptible to bruising easily. Steroids (for things like asthma, eczema or rheumatoid arthritis) can also cause excess thinning of the skin, so if your doctor has you on a certain prescription, be aware of this common side effect.

Your Activity Level

If you move through multiple intense exercise sessions each week, that stress on your body could be causing excess bruising because you’re pushing your body hard enough to create tiny tears in your blood vessels. This kind of bruising is common for weightlifters and marathon runners, but fear not — using the RICE method can help reduce the discoloration.

If these bruises aren’t causing you any major pain or other complications, they’re probably nothing to worry about. But if the frequency and severity of them worry you, or they stick around for longer than three or four weeks, it can’t hurt to check in with your primary care doctor about your concerns.

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