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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veazie41953 | @veazie41953 | Feb 16 12:02pm

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

gravity3 | @gravity3 | Feb 16 1:21pm

In reply to @veazie41953 "I've had this for about 8 years..I'm 72. I have found that Vitamin K cream does..." + (show)

@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.

Rubyslippers | @triciaot | Feb 16 6:54pm

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.

aethos | @aethos | Feb 17 7:44pm

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

dmcara | @dmcara | May 4 7:41am

In reply to @barbpatt "Instead of the golden years for some of us it’s the purple years." + (show)

@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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