What makes bruises different colors (blue, black, yellow, etc.)?
In: 19
Bruises is blood leaking into your tissues. As you insure yourself you rupture blood vessels and that blood has nowhere to go so it pretty much just pools in your tissues. The depth of the blood (how far down in your body it is) can affect the color. Once the “bleeding” stops your body starts “cleaning up the mess” and tries to eliminate the blood that is not in its usual place. As the process takes place the bruise will change color.
Credit to u/_wyse_
There is no new pigment, but just how the blood looks through your skins pigment. Bruises can look different depending on where they are, how deep beneath the skin, and how severe the bruise is.
Bruises happen when you bleed without breaking the skin. Sometimes with more forceful trauma, like twisting your ankle, you bleed in the deeper tissues and the blood gradually seeps into your skin over a longer period of time (hours to days).
**Red Bruises** When you first get a bruise — especially one near the surface of your skin — it usually appears red. The color comes from fresh blood leaking into your tissues. Fresh blood is bright red because it contains both iron and oxygen.
**Blue Bruises** Within a few hours, blood that has leaked from your injured blood vessels loses the oxygen it was carrying. As this occurs, the blood becomes darker and your bruise begins to look more bluish or purple. Note that if you have a deep bruise, the red stage may have already passed by the time you are first able to see the bruise. So the first color you see may be a bluish purple color.
**Purple Bruises** Typically, over one to three days (depending in the severity of your injury), a bruise becomes more intensely purple and may even appear black. This occurs as red blood cells break down and iron is released into the injured area.
When red blood cells break down, they release an iron-containing protein called hemoglobin. As your bruise begins to heal, your body converts the hemoglobin into other colored chemicals. The presence of these chemicals causes your bruise to change color as it heals.
**Green Bruises** You’ll know your bruise is beginning to go away when you notice it turning green. You’re likely to first notice the transition from purple to green at the edges or center of a bruise. The green color is due to the presence of a hemoglobin breakdown product called biliverdin. The last part of the word, “verdin,” comes from the Latin word for green — making it easy to remember (and impress your friends).
**Yellow Bruises** At long last, your green bruise will eventually turn yellow as it enters the final stage of healing. The yellow color is from the final breakdown product of hemoglobin in your skin, a chemical called bilirubin. The yellow fades as your body clears away the last of the debris from the bleed, leaving you with bruise-free skin that is none the worse for the wear.
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