This influences the long-term production of clotting factors and places the sufferer at an enhanced risk of bruises. Erin is a Nurse Practitioner with 8 years of experience in midwifery and women's health. She has spent the past 5 years specializing in the treatment of opioid and alcohol use disorders. Finally, a person with an alcohol use disorder will likely give up other activities, because their focus is on drinking. Withdrawal side effects can be incredibly uncomfortable, which can lead a person to resume drinking to alleviate these side effects.
- For the average healthy guy (say, drinking one or two drinks per night, or fewer than 14 drinks per week) the alcohol-related effects on bruising are temporary, and no real cause for concern.
- That vital organ, which sits on the right side of your body beneath your rib cage, processes all of the blood in your body and cleans it of toxins before releasing it into circulation.
- Most people who drink heavily will progress through the stages of liver damage described above over time.
- But if you bruise more easily all the time after chronic heavy drinking, it may be a sign of significant health concern.
Focusing All Attention On Drinking
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You Can Protect Your Liver
This is also why people may be willing to get behind the wheel of a car while they’re drunk. Alcohol can change circuitry in the Halfway house brain, and those changes can make it difficult for you to curb an alcohol habit. You may attempt to commit to cut back on your drinking but may find that you can’t resist the temptation to drink for more than a day or two. The brain changes brought about by alcohol could make clear thinking difficult, and that could make it hard for you to stick to your commitments even if you want to do so. To allow the liver to heal and the risk of bruising to drop, you must stop drinking altogether.
Is Bruising After Drinking a Sign of Alcoholism?
Even small amounts of alcohol can affect your cognitive functioning enough to make driving dangerous. A traditional bruise comes about after your body endures some impact. Running into furniture, falling into a something hard, or being struck by a flying object could all leave you with bruises. If your bruise doesn’t improve within two weeks, or if you start to notice frequent, unexplained bruises—whether you’re drunk or sober—call your doctor. Plus, you’re more susceptible to an accidental fall https://ecosoberhouse.com/ or bump after you’ve been drinking, anyway. So when you drink alcohol and injure yourself, you can be left with a bigger, more noticeable bruise than you might see while sober.
A person may also develop a tolerance for alcohol, meaning that they need larger and larger amounts to obtain the desired effects. Most people who drink heavily will progress through the stages of liver damage described above over time. When alcohol impairs liver function, it decreases these proteins, increasing the likelihood of bruises after drinking alcohol.
Under normal circumstances, your brain communicates with your body by sending signals through your central nervous system. Alcohol, like other psychoactive substances, interacts with your central nervous system by altering some of the chemical communication processes. When you want does alcohol cause bruising to unlock your front door to go home after a night of drinking, you see the lock, and your brain sends a signal to your hand to move the key toward it.
People on Blood-Thinning Medications
- Among these health issues caused by frequent heavy drinking are the occurrences of bruising after drinking alcohol.
- Motor control issues may begin when your blood alcohol level reaches 0.06, and they get really bad at 0.1.
- Liver cirrhosis is linked to bleeding complications and can even lead to the formation of a large type of bruise called a hematoma.
- Hydration will make your skin elastic and blood vessels strong, reducing the chances of bruising due to alcohol.
- Learn the answer, as well as how to get help with medication assisted treatment for alcohol use, below.
Taking minor precautions can drastically reduce bruising after drinking. Hydration will make your skin elastic and blood vessels strong, reducing the chances of bruising due to alcohol. Alcohol impairs your cerebellum, the part of your brain that’s responsible for coordinating your movements, Swartzwelder says.
Yes, alcohol reduces your blood’s ability to clot by impairing platelet production and liver function. This makes even minor injuries result in noticeable bruises after drinking alcohol. Some of the common symptoms of alcohol dependence are not being able to restrain your consumption, withdrawal reactions, or drinking despite such negative effects. If it’s repeatedly bruising after drinking, then maybe that’s one symptom with several others that alcohol might be harming your health in general. Chronic alcohol misuse has a negative effect on every system of the body. Something people might notice with ongoing, severe alcohol misuse is bruising from alcohol.
Since alcohol slows down central nervous system activity and communication, you take longer to register stimuli and decide what to do. It increases your chances of being hit in the forehead with an incoming football, but it may also cause you to bump into people or objects. For the average healthy guy (say, drinking one or two drinks per night, or fewer than 14 drinks per week) the alcohol-related effects on bruising are temporary, and no real cause for concern. According to the National Library of Medicine, a bruise is a mark under the skin, usually painful and swollen, that occurs because of blood trapped beneath the skin’s surface. When a person gets a bruise, some sort of injury crushes blood vessels, but the skin does not break and cause external bleeding. When drinking becomes compulsive, as is the case with alcohol use disorder, a person may place themselves in danger when consuming alcohol, because drinking becomes more important than safety.
