Senile purpura bruises and treatment options

Posted by ellerbracke @ellerbracke, May 24, 2019

I ( and a friend or 2) love gardening. Even with wearing long sleeves while working outside, (today it was about 76 degrees by 8 AM here), I still get poked or scratched. The resulting bleeds and the bruises are way out of proportion to the cause. Anybody have a good suggestion how to cover up some of the bruises on my lower arms (elbow to wrist) so I don’t look so abused when going out in public? Meaning, make-up tricks. Tomorrow it will be around 94 degrees again here, so long sleeves out and about are not what I want to wear going forward.

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I've had this for about 8 years..I'm 72. I have found that Vitamin K cream does lesson the time of "repair". I also ordered some Bee Venom cream.. seams to work pretty well. I don't believe theirs any way to avoid them; unfortunately. They really are horrific looking, in my opinion. Hands, arms, especially elbows and now my legs are getting them all over. Just very thin skin. I do take inhalers for COPD.. so I'm sure that doesn't help. Sometimes I'll cover them with a bandaid.. a gentle one on my hands.. am I being vain? Probably, but whatever.. they are pretty ugly. LOL

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Profile picture for veazie41953 @veazie41953

I've had this for about 8 years..I'm 72. I have found that Vitamin K cream does lesson the time of "repair". I also ordered some Bee Venom cream.. seams to work pretty well. I don't believe theirs any way to avoid them; unfortunately. They really are horrific looking, in my opinion. Hands, arms, especially elbows and now my legs are getting them all over. Just very thin skin. I do take inhalers for COPD.. so I'm sure that doesn't help. Sometimes I'll cover them with a bandaid.. a gentle one on my hands.. am I being vain? Probably, but whatever.. they are pretty ugly. LOL

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@veazie41953

I am 77. I had some mainly on my arms and hands. When I started bhrt last year they have disappeared and I don't get them now. I have estradiol, testosterone and progesterone.

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I get these often. Lack of estrogen is probably the problem but I can’t take hrt.
I used to put bandaids on my arm so the ugly bruise didn't scare the grandkids. But now I use under-eye concealer. It’s great, easy to apply, lasts long, and comes in lots of skin colors.

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I read on Chat GPT to use what I have already been using on my face for actinic purpura. I use Vitamin C serum in the morning and retin A in the evening. Before I put retin A on my arms in the evening I use Cera V moisturizing cream and wait at least 10 minutes to put on Retin A . I have been doing this for two weeks and see some improvement

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Profile picture for barbpatt @barbpatt

Instead of the golden years for some of us it’s the purple years.

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@barbpatt

I have finally discovered a routine to lesson the bruising which I’ve had on forearms for years:

1-self heal cream (Flower Essence Services)
2- Adamia Therapeutic Repair Lotion
3-Blue Lizard 50 Sensitive mineral sunscreen

I had been layering the self heal followed by the Adamia cream, which immediately improved, but when I added the Lizard sunscreen things really improved even more and quickly . Apparently the zinc oxide is a key to healing and strengthening as well as protecting this thin forearm skin.

I also switched asthma inhalers from Qvar to Asmanax and that also showed an effect after several weeks, but adding the zinc seems to have really done the trick. Forearms are spot- free right now!!! I’m almost 70 and a clumsy gardener prone to injuries.

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Profile picture for JK @contentandwell

@ellerbracke @imallears Are you sure these are bruises? I get purple spots on my forearms that are called actinic purpura, or very insultingly, senile purpura. As my daughter commented when I told her that, "how rude!". Here is an article about a product, Dermend, that is supposed to help with this.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5605207/
I asked my dermatologist and he prescribed Tretinoin, which is basically a retin A type of cream and supposed to make your skin a little thicker to not get these marks as easily.
I am including pictures of my purpura so you can see if this what you also have. They are different from bruises actually, and more apt to happen with fair-skinned people. Being on prednisone increases the chance of getting them because apparently, prednisone thins your skin more. I just found this out Friday from a nurse.
I wear an Apple watch now and am getting a lot of redness/purpura where that is. The Apple watch emits a green light out the back to reflect on your blood and determine your BPM. I am wondering if that green light may be causing a problem for me. I think I may try turning that option off on my watch.
There is a heavy makeup called Dermablend that is made for body usage - they actually have both, facial and body. That could help I believe but it sounds as if it's a pain in the neck to use. I am hoping mine will diminish some time before my son's wedding, but if not I may consider using it.
JK

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I have this too, mostly not exactly bruises though the spots can be dark red if I hit something hard. I have been trying arnica cream and dermablend bruise cream. Not wowed. I’m also loading up on collagen supplements and vitamin C but don’t really feel like anything really works. The Dermablend body makeup does work quite well on my legs to lighten the spots and I spray it with a waterproofing makeup spray to help keep it from rubbing off. For me it is something of a family tradition and it seems to be getting worse each year. I’m 76, have probably been dealing with it for at least 6 years.

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