Bruises are formed when blood leaks from the capillaries in the various layers of the skin, into the surrounding area. This is seen as red colouration on the skin and can be raised and nearly always painful initially.
Bruises result from a trauma to the skin, which causes the blood vessels to leak into the surrounding area. Bruises appear particularly with accidents, injections or operations and these can be prevented or minimized with a simple application of Hematix™ after the procedure or accident.
Bruises can appear quite raised where the damage to the area causes inflammation as well as the bruise. This is called a contusion.
Or alternatively, the bruise can be flat, but with the same level of discoloration. This iscalled an ecchymosis.
Both contusions and ecchymosis are the result of blood leaking into the tissue from damaged blood vessels. The degree of damage to the area normally dictates the size and severity of the bruise, but some patients are more susceptible to bruising because of their age or other medicines that they take.
Bruises are caused by trauma to the skin or sometimes occur because of the age of the patient. The main causes are:
There are many potential treatments for Bruises, but most have no evidence that they work that well. It was thought that certain plant based extracts and some vitamins work, because in some tests they have been found to break up blood, they were thought to be effective against bruising. In the majority of published studies both plant extracts and vitamins have not shown any real difference from no treatment at all. iii iv
There are quite a few myths about treatments for bruises that are still used today:
Arnica is used a lot as a ‘natural’ treatment for bruising. Arnica has been proven in most studies to have no real effect on the outcome of bruising compared to using nothing or a placebo. vi
Raw Steak is often said to be a cure for bruising. Who hasn’t seen a film with an actor with a steak over their eye. The only effect that the steak will have is to cool the area.
