Why don't I bruise?

Submitted ⁨⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Sombyr@lemmy.zip⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

As a kid, I bruised all the time, very easily. Nowadays, I don’t bruise at all, with some exceptions.
I broke my toe about a week ago, as in literally snapped the bone in half and ended up with one piece almost a centimeter out of alignment. And yet, no bruise. Not even the slightest sign of one.
Now, the exception is if I’ve been drinking. I broke that same toe 2 years ago while I was drunk and it basically turned black.

I don’t know why I would bruise normally when drinking, but never bruise at all when sober. Is it possible I am bruising and it’s just not visible for whatever reason?

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Comments

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morphballganon@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Find a kink event and tell the dom/domme of your choice that you don’t bruise. They’ll prove you wrong.

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- Sombyr@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Considering a broken bone didn’t cause any bruising, I don’t think I’m up for the Drukhari shit they probably have in mind.
  
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cafeinux@infosec.pub ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’m not a medic at all, but would guess that since alcohol tends to liquefy blood, it could explain why you bruise when you’ve been drinking. It’s also the reason why it’s better to not drink alcohol the day before getting a tattoo, as you’ll bleed more.

Now, with the inverse reasoning, maybe you don’t bruise because your blood is “too thick”, whatever that could mean? Maybe ask a physician ?

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- ____@infosec.pub ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Also not a medic, but always understood alcohol to be a blood thinner. Not the cause of it’s direct negative effects afaik but would seem to explain difference in bruising while drunk vs sober.
  
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  - flooppoolf@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    I’m about to be one of the aforementioned. Almost done with the clinical rotation part. You guys are pretty much on point. Also when you’re drunk you’re much more likely to have hit yourself harder and sloppier than initially thought. More damage might result in a messy wound vs an anticipated accident.
    
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bjg13@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You are a vampire. Invest in sunblock.

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- Sombyr@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  At least that means I get to be rich and hot. Better get shopping for castles to brood in I guess.
  
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shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Same here. At 52 I simply don’t bruise, not matter the injury. Yes, even broken fingers and toes. Between being active and clumsy, I get injured a fair bit. Can’t say when I noticed it, but it’s been a thing since at least my 30s.

There was a brief period in life where I bruised alarmingly easy! Started thinking I had really fucked up my vascular system. Then it stopped. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Drinking doesn’t seem to matter, I drink beers (many) every day, but nothing stronger.

I have almost no body fat, and maybe not enough. That the case with you? Women seem to bruise far easier, and even skinny women have that fine layer of fat some of us men lack. Just spit balling here, but I’m as confused as you are.

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- Sombyr@lemmy.zip ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’ve got a fair amount of fat and muscle on me. That could be a factor though. Maybe one of the reasons I don’t bruise easily is because I absorb the blows better than I used to. Back when I was bruising constantly I had alarmingly little body fat.
  
  Combined with some of the stuff other people have mentioned, I can see there being enough factors piled on that the injury would have to be really severe before I start having noticeable bruising.
  
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  - shalafi@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Sounds opposite of me then. Always been scrawny, always been hard to bruise. Since I was a child anyway.
    
    But there was that weird time when I bruised at a touch! Scared the shit of out me, thought I was getting old and falling apart. Still no idea how that worked, but it’s long over.
    
    If someone gets you a reasonable answer, let me know!
    
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dan1101@lemm.ee ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I don’t know but I have the same question, I haven’t had a bruise since I was a child.

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ettyblatant@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You don’t remember, but we shook hands a while ago and through some Freaky Friday transitive biological process, I took all your bruises and combined them with my own. I was embarrassed my hex backfired, so I didn’t tell you. Sorry!

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PopMyCop@iusearchlinux.fyi ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I can’t answer about why you wouldn’t normally bruise, but when people drink alcohol, the skin becomes flushed. This is because one of alcohol’s effects is to open the arterioles that feed capillary beds. It’s also why it’s not a good idea to drink alcohol to warm yourself; you’ll feel warmer because your skin is flushed (the same reason why inflammation tends to feel hot), but you’ll be losing heat more quickly in contact with cold environments. Your typical bruise comes from the capillary beds being damaged, thus if you are drinking and have more blood in your capillary beds, you’ll be more likely to bruise.

You might just have pretty efficient arterioles that close off the capillary beds. You might also have very osmotic interstitial fluid, which means your cells are at the same osmolarity, and would tend to ‘suck up’ the blood that would be otherwise ‘lost’ (as in, out of place in the area it’s in) and distribute its contents.

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- flooppoolf@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  The skin becomes flushed for a different reason. It’s a sort of allergic reaction to the metabolism of alcohol that results in toxic acetaldehyde. Usually we have aldehyde dehydrogenase to rid the body of acetaldehyde but some people are lacking normal amounts of enzyme.
  
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spittingimage@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
There was a time when I bruised the normal amount. Then I joined a martial art class that had me repeatedly getting punched, kicked, twisted and flipped onto wooden floor boards. After six months of that, I stopped bruising at all. Even now, decades after I stopped practicing martial arts.

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