i just took a little tumble off my motorcycle a little while ago (not my fault of course). hip got banged up nicely, lots of swelling and some road rash, but no damage to joint. but NO, repeat, NO visible bruising. in fact, i almost never bruise. (there is some yellowish bruise-like spots farther down the leg where i did not get hit. i think this is the swelling dripping down, not bruising particularly)
i know for a fact that when you bruise easily, that is a sign of bad health in some form (vitamin E or K deficiency?). well, does this lack of bruising mean i am a quick healer or that i am really healthy? what does bad bruising or no bruising at all entail, generally speaking?
Cite? Problems with the coagulation system can cause easy bleeding and bruising, but the reverse doesn’t necessarily apply.
bad bruising means a lot of capillaries and other blood vessels got broken, and leaked a lot of blood near the skin surface where it is easily visible. If the broken vessels are deeper, say as with a bad sprain, the bruise might not be apparent for days.
No bruising means no vessels got broken near the surface where it’s visible, or in a location where the blood can seep towards the surface where it becomes visible later. Or that broken vessels leaked little blood. A dehydrated person, with thicker blood, could have this happen. Not necessarily a healthy thing. But usually there’s no life or health threatening reason for not bruising easily.
Bruising easy is a sign of vitamin C deficiency. However, falling down from a bike is not bruising easy. Vitamin C is necessary for the integrity of the cell wall, and those who do bruise easy may have a vitamin C deficiency.
I’m kinda the same way. A programmer by trade but I do a lot of remodeling and generally beat up my body pretty much. I bleed pretty good, but I don’t seem to bruise. I think it may be a factor of how aware of your body you are. You may be bruised, you just don’t notice it or see it.
For instance, my Dear wife will put a Band-Aid on an injury I don’t even think I would notice. Like a small splinter. If I’m working, I won’t usually cover up a cut unless it starts making a mess. Letting it bleed out seems to clean up the wound. I’m 41 and I can’t remember my last bruise.
The latest on this is that a cut should be covered by a bandage immediately after cleansing the wound. Some have said in the past that you should leave the wound exposed for faster healing, but it is now said by those who should know these things that this is not true.
Swelling generally means fluids and inflammatory cells have moved into an area in response to trauma, as they are supposed to do to facilitate healing and fight any potential infection. Bruising means red blood cells have leaked in thru broken vessel structures. The red blood cells themselves can be irritating to tissue and make the inflammation worse.
Why didn’t you bruise while others did? Multiple factors come into play, including force and mechanism of impact, degree of fatty padding or thickness of muscle tissue in the area, prominence of blood vessels in the area, degree of hydration of the individual, etc. etc. etc.
If a person gets a big bruise every time they have a minor bump, then I suspect problems with clotting factors. But I’ve seen two people from the same car in a motor vehicle accident, and one had massive bruises from getting jerked around in the seat belt, and the other didn’t. Why? That’s just the way it worked out. No reason to suspect a disease process behind it, unless things are consistently outside of the expected outcomes.