What Can Cause Individuals To Bruise Easily?
A bruise is a visible discoloration of the skin that occurs in response to an injury to an individual's soft tissues. Local capillaries in the affected area break and allow red blood cells to leak. A bruise usually appears purple or red initially, and will not lose color when pressure is placed on it. As the body begins to reabsorb blood components, the bruise begins to heal. Bruises typically go through color phases of black and blue that eventually lighten up to brown and green before fully fading away. Bruising in healthy individuals is attributed to a minor or moderate blunt injury. However, an individual who bruises easily maybe have some underlying mechanism or condition. Some causes of easy bruising are very benign and are not of significant concern, while others can be serious and life-threatening. Learn about them now.
Thinner Skin Due To Age
Many individuals will experience thinner skin due to age and start to bruise easily. As the body ages, normal tissue growth processes begin to slow down. Old bone tissue that is broken down does not get replaced with new bone as quick, and the body takes longer to repair minor tissue injuries. Special proteins that make up an individual's skin keep it moist, firm, strong, and elastic. However, these proteins do not get produced as often as the body ages, resulting in a lower rate of replacement of skin cells that regularly shed off. This mechanism causes the skin to become thinner in individuals of advanced age, and tissues that make up the blood vessels become weaker. Bruises occur when trauma damages or ruptures the blood vessels in the skin, causing blood to leak into the surrounding tissue. The fatty components in and underneath the skin help absorb the shock of blows and help protect vessels to a certain extent, but those fatty tissues become less ample as the body ages. Less trauma is needed to produce a bruise, and bruises occur more frequently in the elderly as a result of these changes in the body.
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Blood Thinners
Individuals who take blood thinners regularly to manage certain conditions are known to bruise easily. These medications are meant to stop the formation and further development of any existing blood clots. Disorders that cause the blood to clot abnormally, heart defects, heart disease, and other conditions that increase an individual's risk of developing clots may all be treated with the use of blood-thinning medications. While blood-thinning medications are effective at the prevention of strokes and heart attacks in certain individuals, they do produce adverse side effects. Therefore, these drugs are only used when their benefits outweigh their risks.
There are two main classifications of blood-thinning drugs. Anticoagulants function by slowing down the coagulation cascade or process of blood clot formation. Antiplatelet drugs inhibit the action of platelets so they do not stick to one another or the blood vessel walls. While these mechanisms help keep existing clots from becoming larger and new clots from developing, they also impair the healthy clotting process in situations where it is warranted. Bruises occur when minor trauma causes blood vessels to burst and leak blood. The clotting system doesn't work as it should with these medications, allowing blood to leak into surrounding tissues for a longer period. This causes the affected individual to bruise more frequently and more severely than others.
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