Do You Bruise Easily? When to Get It Checked Out

If you’ve ever bumped your arm or leg with enough force on a hard surface, you know how bruises form. The hit or fall breaks blood vessels just under your skin’s surface. When there is no cut, the blood can’t get out, so it pools underneath your skin. You may get a bruise from a bump or injury to the skin or the tissues beneath the skin.

• To combat the short-term effects of alcohol on the skin, a person can drink water to stay hydrated while consuming alcohol.
• One of your liver’s jobs is to break down potentially toxic substances.
• This effect may explain why you’re waking up with bruises after drinking.
• By mastering the art of bruising, bartenders can take their cocktail-making skills to the next level and create delicious, visually appealing drinks that satisfy their customers’ taste buds.
• Moreover, patients whose chronic alcohol consumption and hemochromatosis have led to liver cirrhosis are at increased risk for liver cancer.

But if you often drink a lot of alcohol and you tend to bruise easily, it may mean you’ve got liver problems. Steroids like prednisone can also cause easy bruising, because they thin the skin. If you notice this happening, don’t stop taking your medication, but do talk to your doctor about it. ARLD does not often cause symptoms until it’s reached an advanced stage.

Vascular effects of alcohol

Females who consume high amounts of alcohol and also carry excess body weight have a greater chance of developing chronic liver disease. There are normally no symptoms, and alcoholic fatty liver disease is often reversible if the individual abstains from alcohol from this point onward. The early signs of alcoholic liver disease are vague and affect a range of systems does alcohol cause bruising in the body. Prolonged alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder can lead to or aggravate a variety of skin conditions. According to a 2020 study, applying topical brimonidine to the skin before drinking alcohol may be effective in reducing the appearance of flushing. Brimonidine is prescription-only, and doctors sometimes prescribe it to people with rosacea.

• This disorder also involves having to drink more to get the same effect or having withdrawal symptoms when you rapidly decrease or stop drinking.
• If you’re experiencing easy bruising, you might have questions about what’s causing it and what you can do about it.
• The precise mechanism underlying vacuole development in blood cell precursors currently is unknown.

The early stages of alcohol-related liver disease typically have no symptoms. When they’re present, the early symptoms can include pain in the area of your liver, fatigue, and unexplained weight loss. Alcohol is one of several substances that can damage your liver. Excessive alcohol consumption can cause fat to build up in your liver. This can lead to inflammation and an increase in scar tissue, which can seriously impact your liver’s ability to function as it should.

What can you do to improve your liver health?

We provide online medication assisted treatment for alcohol use, so you can begin your recovery from home. While bumping into something while drinking may seem relatively harmless, the truth is that excessive drinking can set you up for serious injuries from falling or other accidents. Furthermore, in extreme cases, bruises from drinking can be a sign of liver damage, which can be dangerous. According to the National Library of Medicine, a bruise is a mark under the skin, usually painful and swollen, that occurs because of blood trapped beneath the skin’s surface. When a person gets a bruise, some sort of injury crushes blood vessels, but the skin does not break and cause external bleeding.

This can help to reverse some early stages of liver disease. For example, stopping drinking once diagnosed with fatty liver disease may be able to reverse the condition within 2–6 weeks. Once the alcoholic liver disease progresses, its symptoms become easier to recognize.

Can Alcohol Make You Bruise Easily

Robert is our health care professional reviewer of this website. He has a nursing and business/technology degrees from The Johns Hopkins University. After one to two days, warm soaks or a warm bath may help the area feel better. If the bruise or swelling is on the lips or in the mouth, offer your child an ice cube or ice pop to suck on. Avoid putting more pressure on the bruised area or massaging it.