What to Do When a Car Accident Happens
January 30, 2018How to Start Exercising Properly
February 19, 2018What is a bruise and why does one happen? Do you bruise easily? A bruise is actually a soft-tissue injury that happens to your muscles. A bruise is a very minor injury and millions of people get them. Some people bruise easily while others don’t. Find out why this happens and how you can strengthen your body to reduce how many bruises you get.
What Is a Bruise?
You’ve probably had a bruise at some point or another during your life. Did you know that a bruise is actually a soft-tissue injury to one of your muscles or to your skin? When you get bumped hard enough or you are injured, the blood capillaries in that region of muscle and skin rupture under the surface. That blood will go into the surrounding area and create a dark red or purple circle-like mark on your skin. This signals that you’ve injured your tissue in that area. The medical term for a bruise is “contusion”. Although generally small, some bruises can be very large and can even come in various colors.
Bruises are commonly red and purple. However, some people will have bruises that have green, brown and yellow spots to them. Your bruise might be purple, but ringed with a different color or it could be so dark that it seems black or blue. Every person is different, so their color will vary based on their injury and genetic makeup. If you’ve injured yourself and have very painful or tender bruises, you will want to seek medical attention.
Do You Bruise Easily?
Some people get a small bruise from bumping into something hard. However, some people bruise easily with any bump—small or large. Others bruise easily to the point where their bruises are very large and even painful to the touch. If you already have a bruise, you don’t want to make it worse by pushing on it, as that area of skin and muscle is already injured and needs to heal. Pushing on the area can make a bruise worse and can cause more blood capillaries to break. There are many people that bruise easily and others that don’t bruise easily at all, or that rarely have a bruise. Women bruise more easily than men do because of hormones.
You will commonly bruise if you’ve had an injury, especially with a cut, as your blood capillaries have been broken with a wound already. If you bruise easily, your activities may be to blame. Participating in sports or high-contact activities often leaves patients with bruises. Car accidents, getting hit by objects, falling down and similar activities will easily leave you with a bruise. If you bruise easily and are on medications, your medications may be making your blood thinner. This can make you bruise easily with any hit. Some supplements will have the same effect as well, so always check what medicines and substances you are putting into your body if you find that you bruise easily and don’t think you should be.
Types of Bruises
Did you know that there are several different types of bruises? The type of bruise depends on what layer of skin or muscle it is located in. The more tender a bruise is, the deeper it might go.
- Subcutaneous – This is a superficial bruise and occurs just beneath the skin. These types of bruises go away quickly and are a result of a small bump or hit to that area of skin. They may be tender to the touch.
- Intramuscular – From the name, you can guess that this is a bruise that happens in your muscle. This is when you’ve injured the tissue past just your layers of skin. If the bruise in in your muscle, it will take a little bit longer to heal than if it was just on your skin.
- Periosteal – This is a bruise on your bone. You can hit something so hard, that it bruises the skin layers, the muscle layers and the bone. Even though bones are very hard, they are still made up of many cells that can be damaged with a hard enough hit. Even if you don’t break a bone, a bruised bone may hurt for weeks and be tender to the touch until the area has time to heal.
Physical Therapy for Stronger Muscles
The best way to prevent bruising is to protect your body. If you participate in contact sports, wear shin, hip, shoulder or thigh pads depending on the sport. If you exercise with weights or on the ground, do them on a yoga mat or softer surface. We recommend keeping your muscles strong by exercising 5 days a week for at least 30 minutes. Strengthening your muscles can decrease your bruising if you bruise easily. If you’re injured often, physical therapy can help your muscles heal and our services can actually help strengthen you enough that you won’t bruise as easy.
Make sure to feed your body properly and that you take a vitamin supplement to keep your body (and especially your muscles strong). If you are elderly or have a disability, vibration therapy can help reduce your muscle injury or atrophy. To find out more about this therapy and others that can strengthen your muscles, call Texas Spine & Sports Therapy Center today at (512) 806-0015. We can help strengthen your body and help you if you bruise easily!