About a year ago I woke up one morning with a random bruise that was about an inch & a half by an inch and half on my thigh. It was very dark colored, but did not hurt when I pushed on it. I had no idea where it came from and took quite a while to go away.

In general everysone says I "bruise like a peach" but right now this is totally unexplainable:

I have 5 bruises in total on my legs (one leg has 1, the other 4 obviously) and I can honestly say I have no clue where they came from. 2 are very faint, so those I could perhaps blame on banging into something (although I truly do not recall such a thing).

but the other 3 are very dark like hickeys! They hae what looks like broken blood vessels or something as they are very close to the skin and look weird... One is an absolute perfect circle like the back of pencil's eraser head (this one does not hurt at all if I push hard on it), the other is an odd shape and bigger in size (thi one does hurt), and the other is more faint (does not hurt).

Now I know that anemia can cause bruising, but I have been taking a multivitamin for quite a while now, and have not been folowing a veggie diet at all.

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So does anyone know of any other possible explanation for particularily my weird hickey bruises (I should mention that the massive one I had on my thigh a year ago was also similar in that it had broken capiallaries and looked blood filled or something)

Sorry I made this soooooooooo long but just want to now what is up with random bruises especially with summer here I want to wear pretty dresses and not look all banged up!

Apparently you bruise even from regular contact and light pressure, which is sth that you don't notice because it doesn't hurt, so you get bruises that you don't know where they came from. I think this is mostly genetic - the walls of your arteries are very fragile and if you have thin skin it also makes it even more noticable. A collagen supplement with added vitamin C might have a chance of improving the condition, or anything that supports the formation of connective tissue.

Are you on any medication? I was on medication last year, and I had the same problem with bruising. The backs of my legs looked like I had been beaten. I spoke to my doctor, and she took me off of it immediately. (I'm trying to think of what it was.... can't for the life of me) If you are on meds, check the side effects and see if bruising is listed. Once I stopped the meds, they went away. Good luck. I hope you figure out what is causing this.

Thanks both of you! I've been wanting to try collagen eventually so maybe I will give that a shot. And no I am not on any medications (or BCPs) at all (won't even take advil if I get a headache).

Well, off the top of my head I can think of several nutritional issues that could cause easy bruising.

Vitamin K deficiency - this is a blood clotting factor - we get it from dark green leafy vegetables like kale.

Vitamin E toxicity - you probably could only get this from taking too many supplements. Any use above 800 units per day can lead to easy bruising.

Copper deficiency - we don't need very much of it, but when the levels are too low it does lead to easy bruising.

Vitamin C deficiency - also known as scurvy. If you diet does not have much fruit in it, or if you smoke you could develop this deficiency and it would initially cause easy bruising (and eventually bleeding gums). You need at least 120mg per day to avoid deficiency (about 2 oranges worth).

And.... that's all I can think of at the moment. If this keeps up then I would say definitely get a blood test. Some diseases can cause easy bruising. Nothing to get all worked up about, but it is not common to have the bruises you are describing -and if they continue then get a checkup.

By the way are you doing any herbs for NBE? It is not outside the possibility that they could be responsible.

Best wishes,
waxingmoon

Well as I said I am taking a multivitamin which has no Vitamin K which sucks... I had a bunch of brocolli last week, but definitely rarely eat spinach (although I do like it) and I read parsley can have alot of it so maybe I will buy some later and start eating it (last month I ate it and drank it as a tea obsessively) ...ooh and just saw lettuce has lots, what the heck I've been eating lots of salads though because its so hot outside (find it refreshing) Hmm...

anyways back to my multi, it has 60 IU (27 mg) of Vitamin E, 3.5mg of Copper, 120mg of Vitamin C (but I drink alot of orange juice and other fruit juices so I can't imagine I would ever be short on this) I haven't ate any citrus fruits lately but alot of watermelon...

Thanks for all that info though, I guess I should definitely look into getting some more vitamin K, and my herbs right now are just hops, SP, and teas (too lazy to do anything more lately). And I know leukemia can cause bruising but yeah that seems farfetched (at least I hope)... I have noticed 2 more faint bruises today, you'd swear I was in a rugby match or something haha

Will let you know if anything changes, thanks again ladies :)

Oh right I completely forgot! Blood thinners could also do that, or if you have ''thin blood'' (is that an actual term??) for some reason. Many herbs and even oils are blood thinners.

I used to also bruise quite easily and I ve read that bruising might be connected to Vitamin C deficiency. Stimulating blood circulation with cayenne and ginkgo biloba also helps I think

Darn and I just gave my cayenne away to someone I know! Ugh, and I noticed another bruise today, but the pencil eraser size one is fadingbut still has what looks like broken blood vessels in it si it really is acting like that one from a year ago... so weird.