Patrick has tremendous empathy and compassion for the recovery community, being in recovery himself since 2018. Patrick is uniquely qualified to be helpful because of the specific combination of his academic background and his own experience in recovery. Seeing a doctor can help determine if there’s a more serious issue and get you the right treatment. Contact your GP for advice if you have a history of regular alcohol misuse. The symptoms will be present from birth and can affect babies and young children. What you’re technically experiencing there is a drop in your blood pressure, which causes the heart to work a little harder than usual to pump blood to the rest of your organs.
Focusing All Attention On Drinking
We don’t mean you woke up with a black-and-blue mark because you bumped into something after one too many cocktails. But if you often drink a lot of alcohol and you tend to get a lot of bruises, it may mean you’ve got liver problems. If you, your mom, and your sister all turn black and blue from the tiniest bump, it may be a family thing.
- These symptoms can occur six to 24 hours after their last drink.
- It’s much less common, but severe and unexplainable bruising can be a sign of a blood cancer, such as leukemia.
- Yes, alcohol can affect your blood clotting by thinning the blood and reducing the ability of platelets to clump together, which can lead to easier bruising and bleeding.
- First, alcoholics are more likely to fall and injure themselves, which can cause bruising.
- Adults with low vitamin K levels may also notice a sudden increase in bruising.
When Should I See a Doctor About Bruising After Drinking?
In other cases, the bruising can be a symptom of easily treated nutrient deficiencies. It’s important to see a healthcare provider for an accurate diagnosis and treatment, even if the bruises typically go away in a week or two. Occasional drinking of fewer than two glasses per day is acceptable, but it’s best to familiarize yourself with signs of alcohol addiction and to prevent developing an alcohol use disorder.
Drink Less Alcohol : Learn how to moderate with no pressure to quit
At the end of the day, the person with addiction has to be willing to accept help. The affects can range from dementia and intellectual functioning to debilitating conditions that require long-term care, even if a person has been sober for a period of time. Blacking out from drinking too much is a warning sign of this stage, along with lying about drinking, drinking excessively, and thinking obsessively about drinking. Either way, fluctuations in a person’s appetite, as a result of alcohol consumption, can lead to changes in their weight.
- This means it’s a substance that actually relaxes the muscular walls of the blood vessels and allows more blood to flow to the skin and tissues — aka a blood thinner.
- Older people are much more susceptible to bruising easily, too, because skin becomes thinner and blood vessels become weaker as we age.
- My compassion, resilience, empathy, wisdom, knowledge, experience and love I have for this forgotten population goes beyond words.
If you have a bruise on your breast and don’t know how you got it or have other symptoms, go talk to your doctor. These look a little like a rash with purple, red, or brown dots of blood, but they aren’t raised or bumpy. Bruises usually heal without treatment, but raising the bruised part and applying ice covered in a cloth may help reduce swelling. Petechiae may not be visible on dark skin, but a person may see them on areas with lower levels of melanin, such as the forearms. But when you bruise, your vessels are literally injured or broken in a sense, and blood pools around those vessels and rises to the skin. That vasodilation also happens to be responsible for the flushed sensation of heat you sometimes get in your face when you drink.
- Hematomas are more serious than ecchymoses, and they generally need medical attention.
- I consider myself to be an advocate for the addicted population.
- At the time of injury, your nail may feel sore or tender, but the pressure that builds up under your nail as the blood pools can cause severe pain.
- Alcohol use disorder can include periods of being drunk (alcohol intoxication) and symptoms of withdrawal.
In fact, they may mistakenly believe that drinking actually helps them to function better. In this guide, we’ll alcohol and bruising explore 15 short and long-term signs that you’re drinking too much, including symptoms that don’t necessarily involve a hangover. Bruises, also called contusions, appear as red, brown, bluish-purple, yellow or black circular blemishes on one’s skin. They occur when small blood vessels, known as capillaries, sustain damage and leak their contents just below the surface of the skin. “Generally, bruises should fade completely in a couple of weeks,” Dr. Johnston says. “If your bruise doesn’t heal after roughly three to four weeks, you should seek medical attention because it could be a sign of a more serious medical issue.”
Alcoholics may also have darker bruises due to the increased amount of blood in their body. If you notice that you or someone you know is bruise easily, it may be a sign of alcoholism. Newborns often have very low levels of vitamin K, which are insufficient to stop bleeding. Without a vitamin K injection at birth, babies may bruise easily or bleed excessively. Adults with low vitamin K levels may also notice a sudden increase in bruising.
End-Stage Alcoholism
Meanwhile, binge drinking focuses more on how quickly and how much you drink in one sitting. The CDC defines binge drinking as drinking that brings your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to 0.08% or more. This is usually achieved if you consume five or more standard drinks on a single occasion for men or four or more drinks on a single occasion for women. The typical recommendation is to stick to 1-2 drinks per hour.
Causes Of Bruises After Drinking
Severe alcohol consumption can impair the immune system, which can leave a person at greater risk of infections and skin sores (abscesses). As alcohol dries the skin, our natural defence against pathogens, this can also lead to repeated skin infections. Alcohol can have a damaging effect on many aspects of our lives, even if we only consume it in small amounts.