Bruises happen to all of us at some point—whether it’s from bumping into a table or taking a fall. Usually, they heal within a few days, but for some people, bruising seems to happen more easily and takes longer to disappear. There are several reasons why this might be the case, and factors like age, medications, or certain health conditions play a role. Let’s break it down in a simple way.

What Exactly Is a Bruise?

A bruise forms when small blood vessels under the skin get damaged, causing blood to leak into the surrounding tissue. This leakage is what gives a bruise its distinct colour, which can be anything from black and blue to purple. On darker skin tones, bruises may appear as dark patches or even red or purple, depending on the person's skin tone.

Over time, the body absorbs the blood, and the bruise fades away.

Why Do Some People Bruise More Easily?

There are a few factors that could make someone bruise more often or more severely than others. Here are some of the most common causes:

Age and Family History

As we get older, our skin becomes thinner and the blood vessels under the skin weaken. This makes older adults more prone to bruising. Additionally, bruising can run in families, meaning if your relatives bruise easily, you might too.

Medications

Certain medications can make bruising more common. For example, blood thinners, like aspirin and ibuprofen, are known to increase the risk of bruising because they make it harder for blood to clot. Other medications, including some herbal remedies and chemotherapy drugs, can also affect how easily you bruise. If you’re noticing more bruises than usual, it might be worth discussing with your doctor whether your medications could be the reason.

Liver Disease

The liver plays a big role in blood clotting. When someone has liver disease, it can affect the body’s ability to stop bleeding, leading to easy bruising. Other symptoms of liver disease include fatigue, swelling in the legs, dark urine, and jaundice (yellowing of the skin or eyes). If you suspect this might be the cause, seeing a doctor is crucial.

Bleeding Disorders

Some people have genetic conditions that make it harder for their blood to clot, which can lead to easy bruising. For example, von Willebrand disease and haemophilia are two conditions that can cause frequent or large bruises, sometimes even from minor bumps.

Vitamin Deficiencies

Certain vitamins, like Vitamin C and Vitamin K, help the body heal and clot blood. A lack of Vitamin C can weaken blood vessels, causing easy bruising, while low levels of Vitamin K can make it harder for blood to clot, which can lead to more bruises. In newborns, this can be especially dangerous, but for adults, a simple blood test can identify if a deficiency is the culprit.

Vasculitis

Vasculitis is a group of conditions that cause inflammation in the blood vessels. This inflammation can make bruising more likely. Other symptoms of vasculitis include shortness of breath, numbness in the limbs, or purple spots on the skin. Treatment usually involves managing the inflammation.

Senile Purpura

Common in people over 50, senile purpura causes dark purple bruises, mostly on the arms and hands. It’s not linked to any serious health conditions, but it can make the skin more fragile and prone to tears.

Cancer

In rare cases, easy bruising may be a sign of leukaemia, a type of cancer that affects blood cells. If you notice frequent bruising along with symptoms like fatigue, bone pain, or frequent infections, it’s important to see a doctor.

When Should You See a Doctor?

While most bruises are harmless, there are times when bruising can signal a more serious issue. If you notice bruising that happens more often or more severely than usual, bruises that are slow to heal, or if you experience other symptoms like fever or fatigue, it’s a good idea to check in with a doctor.

Also, if you ever experience a large bruise after a fall or injury and feel dizzy or lightheaded, seek emergency help, as it could be a sign of internal bleeding.

In most cases, bruising isn’t anything to worry about, but understanding the causes can help you stay on top of your health.

Sometimes body pain can be quite difficult to figure out. ‘Is it my shoulder muscle, or is it shoulder joint that’s causing me pain?’ We have all had these questions and struggled while answering them at the doctor’s office. This is a common experience that we all go through, and it can make things like finding what medication will help elevate the pain difficult.

So how do doctors figure this out? Explaining this in a video, Dr Pooja Chopra MD, shares a post on Instagram. Posted on 8th September, in the video caption Dr Chopra explained, “As a PM&R and Pain specialist, my first job is to be a detective. Tracing pain back to its precise source is the most critical step, because each source requires a completely different treatment plan.” She further goes on to give a simplified guide to help people understand their pain better. Understanding where the pain comes from can help people feel more at ease as well as figure out how serious the problem could be.

How To Tell Whether Your Muscle Is Causing Pain, Your Joint Or Nerve?

Muscle Pain

Muscle pain, also called myofascial pain, feels like a dull, deep ache. When you press on the sore spot, you'll feel tenderness and might even find what feel like tight knots or bands. This kind of pain gets worse when you use the muscle that's hurt, but it often feels better with simple things like resting, putting a heating pad on it, or doing some gentle stretches. You can usually point with one finger to exactly where it hurts.

Joint Pain

Joint pain, or articular pain, is a deep, internal ache that feels very stiff. It's not on the surface; it feels like it's coming from inside the joint itself. You might feel a sharp pain when you make a specific movement, like reaching high above your head. This type of pain is often at its worst when you first wake up in the morning, but it tends to get better as you start moving around and warm up the joint. Because the pain is deep, it can be hard to say exactly where it is.

Nerve Pain

Nerve pain, also known as neuropathic pain, is the most distinct kind of pain. It feels like sharp, shooting, burning, or "electric" shocks. People often describe it as a tingling sensation, like "pins and needles," or even numbness. A key sign of nerve pain is that it travels along a clear path, for example, from your neck all the way down your arm. This pain can come on unexpectedly, even when you're completely still and not moving the body part.

It's important to remember that these types of pain can be linked. For example, a problem with a joint could make the muscles around it tense up in a protective spasm, which could then pinch a nearby nerve. This is why a proper diagnosis from a specialist is so important. They use advanced tools like diagnostic ultrasound, which lets them see exactly what's happening inside your body, so they can treat the root cause of the pain precisely.

A new study has pointed out that people who have chronic insomnia could be at higher risk of dementia. One of the best things a person can do to recover from a tiring day, whether it is from a stressful day or after a tiring workout. However, it is not easy for everyone, there are many people who suffer with sleep problems like chronic insomnia.

An estimate of 16.2% of people around the globe suffer with insomnia according to 2025 Sleep Medicine Reviews, which is a condition that makes it hard to fall or stay asleep. A big number of these people have what's called chronic insomnia, meaning they've had this problem for at least three months, with poor sleep happening three or more nights a week.

Previous studies have already connected insomnia to serious health problems like heart disease and diabetes. But now, a new study in the medical journal Neurology has found an even more concerning link: people with chronic insomnia might be at a much higher risk for developing dementia and other memory problems. The study suggests that their brains could be aging faster as a result.

How Does Insomnia Cause Dementia?

For this study, researchers followed 2,750 older adults for an average of five and a half years. At the beginning, everyone was mentally healthy. The researchers found that the people who had chronic insomnia had a 40% higher chance of developing dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Researchers explain that this is a huge finding because it means chronic insomnia could be a bigger risk factor for memory loss than having both high blood pressure and diabetes. They also discovered that those who slept less had more of the tell-tale signs of Alzheimer's disease in their brains, like amyloid plaques, and other signs of damage to their brain's blood vessels. This shows that poor sleep isn't just about feeling tired—it's linked to real, physical changes in the brain.

Why You Should Prioritize Sleep?

Experts believe that a big part of the problem is that insomnia is often overlooked. Many older adults just assume that bad sleep is a normal part of getting older. However, doctors stress that chronic insomnia is a real medical issue that goes beyond typical age-related changes. They urge doctors to start talking to their patients about their sleep habits during every check-up.

The good news is that chronic insomnia is a treatable condition. The main treatment is a type of talk therapy called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). The hope is that by recognizing and treating insomnia, doctors can help protect a person's brain health for years to come.

How Does Insomnia Affect Our Memory

Previous studies have shown that our cognitive abilities are affected by how much we sleep. A 2020 study published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, explained that there is a strong connection between a person's sleep and their risk of developing Alzheimer's. We know that sleep is crucial for learning and creating memories. Studies have found that a lack of sleep and conditions like insomnia are not just a symptom of Alzheimer's—they may also play a role in its development.

This means that sleep disorders can have a significant impact on whether someone gets Alzheimer's and how fast the disease progresses. Because of this, it's important for doctors to pay more attention to sleep issues when diagnosing and treating patients. By properly screening for and managing sleep disorders, we might be able to help prevent or slow down the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

A new study from Stanford University suggests that daylight saving time isn't just an inconvenience; it could actually be bad for our health. The research shows that our twice-a-year routine of changing the clocks disrupts our bodies' natural rhythms, which can lead to serious health issues. This is a big deal because it provides the first real scientific evidence that this time-switching practice has a biological cost.

What is Daylight Saving Time?

According to the Sleep Foundation, daylight saving time (DST) has been an official practice in most of the United States since 1966. Only a few places, like Hawaii and parts of Arizona, don't follow it. The routine is simple: on the second Sunday in March, we set our clocks forward by one hour, losing an hour of sleep. Then, on the first Sunday in November, we set them back, gaining that hour of sleep. This is why many people remember it as "Spring Forward, Fall Back."

How Daylights Saving Time Affects Our Health

According to the study, if the U.S. got rid of daylight saving time and stayed on standard time all year, it could prevent thousands of strokes and significantly reduce obesity. The researchers, using mathematical models and data, estimated that this single change could prevent 300,000 strokes and lead to 2.6 million fewer people with obesity every year. This adds to what we already know about the negative effects of the time change, such as a spike in heart attacks and car crashes in the days after we lose an hour of sleep in the spring.

How Does Daylight Saving Time Affect Sleep?

Our body's internal clock is heavily influenced by light. When the clocks change, the amount of natural light we get in the morning and evening shifts. This can throw off our sleep-wake cycle, making it harder to feel alert in the morning and sleepy at night.

The “spring forward” change is particularly hard on us. One study found that on the Monday after the time change, the average person gets 40 minutes less sleep. This lack of sleep can build up over time, affecting our mood and increasing the risk of accidents.

While the "fall back" change in November can give us an extra hour of sleep, some people still struggle to adjust to the new schedule. For most people, the effects fade after a few days, but some studies suggest that others never fully adjust, leading to ongoing health problems.

Why Time Changes Mess With Our Bodies

The core problem lies in our body's internal clock, or circadian rhythm. Think of it as the conductor of an orchestra, directing all your body's processes. When it's working well, everything is in sync. But when it's thrown off, like by getting light at the wrong time of day, your body's systems can become disorganized.

This can weaken your immune system, mess with your sleep, and increase your risk for diseases like stroke and obesity. The study found that switching between standard and daylight saving time is the worst thing we can do for our body clock, much worse than staying on either time year-round. It's a bit like having the conductor suddenly change the tempo for no reason—the whole orchestra, or in this case, your body, gets thrown off.