What causes a bruise to form and what are some possible ways to prevent bruising?
We may wake up with one on our leg and wonder how it got there. Maybe we bump into a wall with our knee and the next day one springs up. Sometimes in the middle of the night, we stub our toe on the coffee table and we may get one on our foot. We all get them and we have all had one. What are they? Bruises. Bruises, or contusions, are those black, blue, purple or red marks that we get on a part of our body that has experienced recent trauma. For example, putting on a pair of ice skates for the first time and then falling on your butt may constitute trauma and cause a bruise to form. In essence, bruises occur when our soft tissue is injured in some form, causing the tiny capillaries and veins that are located right beneath our skin to break. These broken veins and capillaries release red blood cells. It is these released red blood cells that collect under our skin causing a bruise to form.
