Why Do I Bruise So Easily? 14 Possible Causes

Vitamin C is essential to healing and collagen formation, and when you’re not getting enough of it, you may start to bruise easily. Iron deficiency anemia is more common, and can also cause easy bruising, since your body requires iron to make hemoglobin, which helps circulate oxygen throughout your body. Other symptoms to watch for include dry and cracked lips, odd food cravings, and brittle nails. Estrogen also plays a role in bruising easily, since the hormone can prevent blood vessel walls from building. And it also acts as a vasodilator, which means it opens up blood vessels. If trauma happens, more blood can slip out before it’s able to clot. We’ve all been there—a shin to a coffee table or a trip on the sidewalk can leave you with a black-and-blue or two. “A bruise is a reflection of minor injury to the blood vessels under the surface of the skin.

Corticosteroids—topical or systemic medications used to treat various health conditions—can make you bruise easily because they can cause the skin to become thinner. These drugs are often used to relieve swelling, redness, itching, and other allergic-type symptoms. Drinking too much alcohol is a risk factor for liver diseases like cirrhosis. As liver disease progresses, the liver stops producing the proteins needed for helping blood clot. Because of this, a person may have excessive bleeding and bruise easily. Alcohol acts as a vasodilator — it causes blood vessels to relax and open. Even small amounts, like a glass of wine or a shot of hard alcohol (mixed drinks count!), can trigger this effect and increase your risk for bruising after Botox or filler treatments.

ALD Treatment

This is a more common cause of easy bruising than many people realize. Bruising and bleeding usually happen after an injury — like banging your knee against a table. And some people might be more prone to bumping into things. As you get older, thinning skin can also lead to more bruising because your skin can’t protect your blood vessels as well. If you believe that you’re experiencing severe bruising and bleeding, talk with your healthcare provider right away. It is unusual for purpura to emerge as a result of drinking alcohol. Such a peculiarity was observed in a 55-year-old man with a 30-year history of heavy alcohol use.

Heavy alcohol consumption has been linked to more than 60 different diseases. Because the brain changes with alcohol abuse, one of the first physiological signs of addiction is building up a tolerance. Online learning opportunities on substance use disorders, alcohol and drug prevention, violence prevention, behavioral health issues, and more. When it comes to the health of your blood vessels, have a conversation with your doctor. If so, find out what steps you can take to lower those risks. Alcoholic fatty liver disease can be reversed by abstaining from alcohol for at least several weeks. Cognitive behavioral therapy and medications called benzodiazepines can ease withdrawal symptoms in a person with alcohol dependency. People with severe alcohol dependency may stay at an inpatient rehabilitation facility for closer monitoring.

Size up your vitamins

Liver disease is another serious health issue that can lead you to bruise easily. The liver produces important proteins that help our bodies minimize bleeding, so if you’re experiencing health problems with your liver, you may bruise more easily than usual. Among the more serious causes of bruising is leukemia—a cancer of the blood cells. Typically, platelets help your body minimize bleeding, but you’ll be more susceptible to bruising if your platelet count is low due to leukemia. Only a doctor can diagnose leukemia, so set up an appointment if you have concerns. „If an individual frequently suffered from bruises as a result of intense exercise, this should be evaluated promptly by a health care provider to rule out any other underlying causes,“ Coppola says. Swiner is a family medicine/general medicine expert, covering a broad spectrum of both medical and mental health issues.

Rosacea affects around 16 million Americans and is characterized by redness across your cheeks, chin, forehead and nose, though can spread to affect your ears, scalp and chest. With time blood vessels appear in rosacea, so it is no surprise that alcohol can exacerbate the problem. However, if left untreated, excess tissue grows in the form of bumps across affected areas, which can have a significant impact on your confidence and self-esteem. The typical image that many of us have of someone who drinks heavily is that they have a red face and there is a lot of truth in this. The scientific explanation is that when you drink alcohol your blood vessels dilate, allowing more blood to flow near the surface of your skin, giving your face a red glow. This gene mutation is more common among people of Chinese, Japanese and Korean descent and owing to the consequences of drinking they are less likely to abuse alcohol. This longitudinal observation demonstrates the recurrence of purpura dependent on the intake of large amounts of alcohol, which happened after about 30 years of chronic, heavy drinking.

When there is more blood circulating, there is a higher chance of blood escaping if there is a rupture in a vessel. Even a small bump can cause a rupture in the blood vessels, leading to a red or purple-colored bruise. Over time, heavy drinking can cause involuntary rapid eye movement as well as weakness and paralysis of your eye muscles due to a deficiency of vitamin B-1 . A thiamin deficiency can result in other brain changes, such as irreversible dementia, if not promptly treated. Too much alcohol affects your speech, muscle coordination and vital centers of your brain.
Because there is more blood at the surface of your skin when you drink, when those blood vessels break, it makes it that much easier to create the beautiful visual effect of a good ol‘ black-and-blue. If your bruise doesn’t improve within two weeks, or if you start to notice frequent, unexplained bruises—whether you’re drunk or sober—call your doctor. So when you drink alcohol and injure yourself, you can be left with a bigger, more noticeable bruise than you might see while sober. The big bruises you get from smacking into something like a door frame may be sore for a few days, but minor bumps and bruises bruising after drinking aren’t likely to be dangerous. However, the vasodilating effects of alcohol can make injuries more dangerous. When this happens, bruises are purple or red at first, and then they fade as the blood is absorbed into the body again. Usually, a bruise appears when you have collided with something hard. This can happen when walking into furniture, falling or being hit. Excessive drinking can affect your nervous system, causing numbness and pain in your hands and feet, disordered thinking, dementia, and short-term memory loss. Heavy drinking can cause men to have difficulty maintaining an erection .

• Acute alcohol-induced hepatitis might only be a temporary response to overindulgence.
• „As a result of the manifestation of EDS, individuals that suffer from this genetic disorder are more prone to easy bruising due to their delicate skin tissue and connective tissue disorder.“
• Chronic alcohol consumption affected both the number and functioning of circulating CD4 T-cells, and the more these were affected, the more the liver was damaged .
• Heavy drinking can also look like occasional binge drinking — more than five drinks in a night for males or four for females.
• Unexplained bruises can be nothing to worry about — especially bruises on the arms and legs, since many people knock into things without remembering they’ve done it.

If you notice early signs of alcohol-related liver disease, be sure to follow up with your doctor. Having obesity can increase your risk of alcohol-related liver disease. If you’re overweight or obese, work with your doctor to develop a weight loss plan that’s right for you. Once a doctor diagnoses a person with alcoholic liver disease at any stage, they will recommend them to never resume drinking. Any conditions that have reversed will typically return once drinking restarts. Another problem that develops with alcohol and your skin is that it can cause flare ups of skin conditions that you may already have, which is particularly true of rosacea and psoriasis.

Red Face and Alcohol Intake

The affects can range from dementia and intellectual functioning to debilitating conditions that require long-term care, even if a person has been sober for a period of time. Becoming dishonest or secretive, aggressive, moody, or temperamental—people who have an alcohol addiction will try to hide it. Alcoholism was identified in 1956 as an illness by the American Medical Association . It’s a disease—an altering of the brain that controls a person’s motivation and ability to make healthy choices. Once it takes hold, it can be hard to shake loose—without the right help. Virtual Outpatient Addiction Treatment Learn more about Hazelden Betty Ford’s multiple levels of virtual outpatient addiction treatment. New research finds adolescents who drink alone are at much higher risk of developing AUD in adulthood, and female adolescents are at even greater risk. There are several steps you can take to help improve the health of your liver. Cutting down on your alcohol consumption is one of them. Antirejection medications after transplant can increase the risk of serious infections and certain cancers.

Always remember to speak with your healthcare provider or pharmacist before adding supplements to your daily regimen. Antiplatelet medications — like aspirin and clopidogrel — are typically recommended after a heart attack. Too many platelets clumping together can raise your risk of clots and heart attacks. Antiplatelets help prevent this excessive clumping or clotting. Blocking platelets from working, however, can also cause easy bruising and bleeding. While bruising and bleeding can happen more often because of thinning skin as we age or different medical conditions, it can also be a side effect of certain medications and supplements. In this case report, the close interaction of severe alcohol abuse and occurrence of SD is demonstrated. For the first time, to our knowledge, an association of purpura with serum levels of immunoglobulin E , as well as the induction of fresh SD purpura via drinking vinegar, is shown. People who quit drinking alcohol after diagnosis show great improvement after six to 12 months.

The Liver and Bruising

Who have alcohol problems puts a person at a much higher risk of developing an alcohol use disorder. It’s not likely, but it’s possible that your bruises are a sign of bloodcancer, such as leukemia. If you also feel tired, achy, and weak all the time, or lose weight without trying to, give your doctor a call. We don’t mean you woke up with a black-and-blue mark because you bumped into something after one too many cocktails. But if you often drink a lot of alcohol and you tend to bruise easily, it may mean you’ve got liver problems. If you, your mom, and your sister all turn black and blue from the tiniest bump, it may be a family thing. Some people (it’s usually women) just have more fragile blood vessels, and that makes them more likely to bruise, especially on their upper arms, thighs, or butt.

If these vessels are damaged, a small amount of blood can leak out, giving the classic blue, black, or purple discoloration,” says Cory Fisher, DO, family medicine physician at the Cleveland Clinic. Alcohol will thin the blood slightly so you are more likely to have a bruise if you drink after Restylane injections. I use cannulas for most of my injections so the chance of bruising is minimized. Supplements, NSAIDS, aspirin, and alcohol will all thin the blood and shouldn’t be taken if bruising would interrupt your social calendar. It will resolve a bruise after 1-2 days vs the typical days. Arnica orally and topically will also help resolve bruising.When looking at your picture, I am somewhat concerned about the mottled appearance of your skin. This is called livedo reticularis and is an early sign of vascular occlusion. I know this is a question posted years ago, but I’d be interested if this turned out to be a vascular problem. People with diabetes may develop hyperglycemia which creates too much glucose in the blood. Some medicines can cause bruising by decreasing blood clotting.
Chronic alcohol consumption affected both the number and functioning of circulating CD4 T-cells, and the more these were affected, the more the liver was damaged . Moreover, the number of activated CD4 T-cells was described to be increased in individuals with chronic alcoholism , as in our patient (cf. legend of Table2). This case report demonstrates that Schamberg’s disease can be strongly related to alcohol intake, in our patient most likely as a late complication of severe alcoholism with alcoholic liver disease. Immunologic disturbances thereby acquired could have constituted a basis for a hypersensitivity-like reaction after Sober Home ingestion of alcohol. Schamberg’s disease induction by vinegar may point to an involvement of acetate, a metabolite of ethanol. Heavy drinking can also look like occasional binge drinking — more than five drinks in a night for males or four for females. Binge drinking at least five times a month is considered heavy. If you keep up this pace for as few as six months, your risk of developing alcohol-induced hepatitis rises significantly. Most people have been drinking for five years or more, with periods of abstinence. The early stages of alcohol-related liver disease can potentially be reversed by abstaining from alcohol.

Some people are more sensitive to alcohol, and their livers react to even moderate use. Others may be able to drink more without inducing hepatitis. Like a fever, inflammation is supposed to be a temporary intervention. But when the assault is constant, the inflammation becomes constant. If the swelling is severe and persistent, over time it will damage the tissues, causing cell death. The most severe form of alcohol withdrawal is delirium tremens , characterized by altered mental status and severe autonomic hyperactivity that may lead to cardiovascular collapse. Only about 5 percent of patients with alcohol withdrawal progress to DTs, but about 5 percent of these patients die. At this stage, drinking becomes everything in your life, even at the expense of your livelihood, your health and your relationships. Attempts to stop drinking can result in tremors or hallucinations, but therapy, detox, and rehabcan help you get your life back.

It makes it hard to stick to commitments, even if you intend to do so. If you have tried to stop drinking in the past with no success, then it may be time to seek professional help. A certified substance abuse clinician or counselor can help you find out the underlying cause of your drinking and work with you in addressing the issue and curbing your addiction to alcohol. Family members may express concern about drinking habits and behaviors that you engage in while intoxicated. When ingesting alcohol, the blood vessels in the body expand and relax. The expansion of the vessels increases the flow of blood in the body – this includes the vessels that are near the surface of the skin.