Actinic Purpura

Those bruises that so easily come up on your arms? They are also known as solar purpura. And they are due to skin thinning and fragility known as "Dermatoporosis"

The 3 main causes of easy bruising on the forearms are:

1) Age

2) Chronic sun exposure 

3) NSAIDs (such as ibuprofen), Aspirin, oral corticosteroids, and anti-coagulants (blood thinners).

Dr. Eads' recommendations:

This is one of those cases where you really need to be seen by a dermatologist to make sure your condition isn't due to a platelet abnormality such as petechiae. 

But if you've been diagnosed with Actinic purpura and other underlying causes have been discussed,  you can try the following:

1) Vitamin C

500mg twice a day and easy to find anywhere.  This helps your body to make collagen

2) Collagen peptides 

We recommend Vital Proteins brand. One scoop twice a day in your favorite drink. 

3) Vitamin K

This Vitamin is unfortunately controversial. Many fear it will cause your blood to clot. If you are on coumadin/warfarin, this is definitely true because those drugs act by blocking Vitamin K synthesis in the body.  But otherwise it isn't pro-coagulant in property. Nevertheless here is our disclaimer:

Talk to your doctor before taking Vitamin K.

OTC Vitamin K comes as 1 mg (1,000 mcg). There's also a powder form available on Amazon (warning,  it tastes like dirt!). For Vitamin K to work,  you usually need 5 mg a day.  I'll just leave it at that. 

This condition is somewhat chronic, so anything you can do will help.  Protect your arms from trauma, which includes the sun! And come see one of us for other ideas!