What vitamin is a person lacking if you bruise easily?

Question

I got this huge bruise under my bicep and it doesn't even seem like I hit it that hart but it is so big and so disgusting. Am I lacking a certain vitamin that can help me not bruise so easily?

Answer 1

Bruising easily does not mean that you have a serious health problem, especially if bruising is minimal or only shows up once in a while. Women bruise more easily than men, especially from minor injuries on the thighs, buttocks, and upper arms.

Older adults often bruise easily from minor injuries, especially injuries to the forearms, hands, legs, and feet. As a person ages, the skin becomes less flexible and thinner because there is less fat under the skin. The cushioning effect of the skin decreases as the fat under the skin decreases. These changes, along with skin damage from exposure to the sun, cause blood vessels to break easily. When blood vessels break, bruising occurs.

Occasionally easy bruising is a sign of a health problem and may be caused by:

A medication, such as aspirin, blood thinners (anticoagulants), or some antibiotics.
Infection that causes the buildup of toxin in the blood or tissues (sepsis).
A bleeding or clotting disorder, such as hemophilia, von Willebrand's disease, or thrombocytopenia.
Other diseases that affect clotting. Examples include:
Chronic inflammatory diseases, such as lupus.
Liver disease, such as cirrhosis.
Some types of cancer, such as Hodgkin's disease, leukemia, or multiple myeloma.
Inflammation of a blood vessel (vasculitis).
Malnutrition, such as deficiencies of vitamins B12, C, or K, or folic acid.
Bruises that do not go away within 4 weeks of an injury may mean that another problem is preventing healing or that the injury was worse than you suspected.

Call your health professional for an evaluation if you are concerned about how easily you bruise, or if bruises don't seem to be healing normally. Your health professional can evaluate the cause of your bruises and recommend treatment.
Bruising easily is rarely a sign of nutrient deficiency. Bruises are created when the tissue just under the skin gets injured, resulting in a buildup of blood that causes the skin to turn black and blue. Sometimes easy bruising runs in families. And women are more likely to bruise from a minor injury, especially on the thighs, buttocks, and upper arms. It is also common for older adults to bruise easily as capillaries age and the skin’s protective layers become thinner. Although uncommon, vitamin C deficiency can sometimes result in a heightened susceptibility to bruising.

Increased bruising may be a side effect of certain medications that thin the skin or interfere with the blood’s ability to clot, such as steroids, cortisone drugs, aspirin, or ibuprofen. It is also thought that some dietary supplements, including vitamin E, fish oil, ginger, garlic, and ginkgo—which can have similar effects on the blood and skin—may augment bruising. However, the health benefits of these medications and supplements are probably worth a little extra bruising, so consult with your health care practitioner before discontinuing them.

If you are concerned about how easily you bruise, try increasing your intake of the bioflavonoid compounds found in plant foods, such as citrus fruits and berries, which can potentially reduce bruising by strengthening capillary walls and the surrounding connective tissue. If bruises don’t seem to be healing normally, visit your health care practitioner to evaluate the cause and discuss treatment.

Answer 2

Bruise Easily

Answer 3

You are probably not lacking any certain vitamin, at least not if this is your only symptom. Do you find that you are bruising more easily in general? or just this once? Bruising easily can happen if you take medications that affect blood clotting (aspirin, coumadin, plavix, steroids, and certain suuplements, etc) or if you have one of the diseases that affect blood clotting (something that affects your blood platelet level, etc)

If you find you have unusually large or painful bruises, particularly if your bruises seem to develop for no known reason, or you're bruising easily and you're experiencing abnormal bleeding elsewhere, or if you have no history of bruising but suddenly experience bruises, particularly if you recently started a new medication - then you should see your doctor.

Answer 4

Probably Vitamin K.
However, you may want to make sure there isn't any other underlying problem if you find you are bruising more and more easily these days.. aka go get some basic lab workup if the increase in VItamin K does not help your brusing. I would advise careful observation of the brusing, as blood problems can manifest with easy bruising.

Answer 5

Vitamin C makes small blood vessels less fragile and helps reduce bruising. A vitamin C supplement is not necessary in addition to your multivitamin, however, if you follow the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid for 5 fruits and vegetables each day, you can get more vitamin C. Eat foods that are rich sources of vitamin C like orange juice, citrus fruits, kiwi, green peppers and broccoli, which may reduce the severity of your bruising.

Answer 6

I have had this problem since I was a young child (long, long time ago), have asked many doctors about it, had many tests run and the best that they can come up with is that since I am so fair complected and my veins are unusually close to the surface (phlebotomist's love me), it is just easier for me to bruise and for the bruises to show.

to be on the safe side, have your doctor check you for anemia just to rule out a vitamin/mineral deficiency.

Answer 7

I was just resting my arm for a little more than 40 minutes on a coarse bed cover with a little pressure. post that i saw bruise marks - under tthe skin - is this easily bruising ? do i have a problem - i am seeing this for the first time - rather second - i gave blood 3 days back - when i removed the bandaid -plast stricker from the donation point - i saw a small bruise .. please let me know

Answer 8

Sometimes its a sign of an iron defiency. But too much iron can really harm the body. I asked the dr. why i bruised to easily. I have them all over my legs yet dont remember bumping in to anything. He said its usually the fair complected blondes that have that problem. Its in the genes usually. Usually no need for alarm. If you find yourself overly fatigued or feeling ill throughout the days, you might need to go get some bloodwork done at your family dr.

Answer 9

I am taking a supplement of 1g of Vitamin C as an antioxidant. What are the collateral effects related with the excess of Vitamin C?




First of all it turns your urine yellow. It makes your urine more acid, which decreases urinary pH and possibility of urinary tract infections.

Beyond that 1 gm of Vitamin C per day is excessive as an antioxidant; 500 mg would be sufficient, according to the latest research on cancer and antioxidants.




I have a question regarding bruising. I am a very active person, but I bruise a lot easier than I've noticed on other people. Also, when I do bruise, bruises stay for quite a while. I have started taking my multivitamin at the recommended dosage, but I am wondering if I am lacking a certain vitamin or mineral that I should take additionally. I always try to have a very healthy diet. Is there a solution? It is almost embarassing to have bare legs and arms.




Are you on a drug called Coumadin or taking a herbal supplement like ginko? These are blood thinners and can increase the ease of bruising or severity of the bruise even from a slight injury. If you are on coumadin, then your doctor should be checking your clotting time (prothrombin) periodically to make sure it is not too long. If you are on ginko, perhaps you should review with your doctor the need for ginko. Persons on Coumadin should not take ginko as their bleeding time would be too long.

Bruises appear darker and more readily on people with fair skin. People with darker skin have more melonin pigment in their skin, so bruises don't appear as easily. Taking a multivitamin with 100% of the Recommended Dietary Allowances is fine and one pill probably contains 100% of the RDA for vitamin C. Read the bottle label to be sure.

Vitamin C makes small blood vessels less fragile and helps reduce bruising. A vitamin C supplement is not necessary in addition to your multivitamin, however, if you follow the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid for 5 fruits and vegetables each day, you can get more vitamin C. Eat foods that are rich sources of vitamin C like orange juice, citrus fruits, kiwi, green peppers and broccoli, which may reduce the severity of your bruising.

Vitamin K helps improve clotting time and good foods sources of vitamin K are green vegetables, soybeans, dried beans or peas. Do you get enough of these foods each day?




Does cooking destroy vitamin C?




Vitamin C is the most easily destroyed vitamin there is. It is destroyed by oxygen, heat (above 70 degrees) and it leaks out into the cooking water because it is a water soluble vitamin.

To preserve vitamin C in food, store citrus fruits, tomatoes, juices, broccoli, green peppers, cantaloupe and strawberries in the refrigerator uncut until you need them. Prepare dishes with these foods right before serving. Also, cut these foods in larger pieces to prevent the air from destroying vitamin C. Cook these foods in as little water and as short a time as possible. Steaming and stir-frying are two methods that help conserve vitamin C content.

As long as the skin is uncut, the vitamin C is protected from air. If you store a cut fruit or vegetable or an open pitcher of juice, cover it tightly with plastic and put it in the refrigerator.

Vitamin C dissolves in cooking water so serve the food with the cooking water if possible. You can save the water from vegetables like potatoes and broccoli for making soup. Or mash potatoes with some of the potato water.

Also, cast iron pans destroy vitamin C. Don't use them in cooking vitamin C rich vegetables like tomatoes for spaghetti sauce.

Add vitamin C rich foods to casseroles. As they cook, less vitamin C will be lost.

Vitamin C can be completely lost if foods are frozen for longer than two months. Keep your freezer at 0 to -10 degrees to minimize this vitamin C loss in juices and vegetables.

Orange juice is frequently bought as a frozen concentrate. Frozen, reconstituted orange juice has 78% and canned orange juice has 69% of the vitamin C found in fresh squeezed orange juice. Vitamin C is destroyed during the condensing process, but canning is even harder on vitamin C. It appears that fresh squeezed orange juice is better than either frozen concentrate or canned, but remember that the highest Recommended Dietary Allowances for vitamin C is 60 milligrams and all three forms, fresh, frozen and canned provide more than the RDA of vitamin C in 2/3 cup of orange juice.

Answer 10

Anemia can cause brusining. Don't take iron supps - unless they are in amulti vitamin - too much can be bad for you - if in doubt check with your MD.