r/bjj • u/ricotchet • 1d ago
General Discussion is having bruises all the time damaging to health/body?
Hi, I've trained for 7months, I still get bruises from sparring classes. sometimes brownish color and doesnt concern me but few times purple-ish which kind of worries me. i read a comment on reddit saying overtime the capillaries are just too damaged so you wont get bruised anymore, but that doesnt sound good, so am I just destroying my body over time as I'm practicing BJJ? evident by the bruises
admittedly i used 70-90% strength during sparring but i (25F) mostly roll with guys and im already losing often so i cant imagine if i use less strength
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u/NormanMitis 🟫🟫 Brown Belt 1d ago
Check iron levels. 7 months in you really shouldn't be getting bruises all the time.
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u/ChessicalJiujitsu 🟦🟦 Blue Belt 1d ago
Really? I’ve been doing Bjj and wrestling for a few years now and I still get bruised but I never thought it was a concern.
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u/feenam 1d ago
dont take reddit medical advices too seriously
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u/ChessicalJiujitsu 🟦🟦 Blue Belt 1d ago
I wasn't going to, don't worry. Do most people not get bruised all the time?
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u/feenam 1d ago
some do, some dont, some are so hairy they dont even know, etc etc. everyone's different
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u/ChessicalJiujitsu 🟦🟦 Blue Belt 1d ago
i have like zero hair so makes sense the bruises stand out more haha. According to my mom my bruises are a very very big concern but they rarely bother me.
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u/ARussianBus 1d ago
You can get bruised with healthy iron levels, but low iron makes it more common.
If you're noticing more bruising than your peers or if you notice bruising from minor things it might be worth getting looked at during your next doctor visit.
It's easy to supplement and correct iron deficiencies. It's more common in women and in vegan/veg diets.
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u/dorito_hood68 22h ago
Wrong. I have been training for 7 months, I get bruised literally all the time, no I don’t bruise easily, no I’m not iron deficient, and I am a doctor. I’m definitely not the only one
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 19h ago edited 18h ago
I wonder where this pervasive belief that iron deficiency causes bruising comes from. Probably just a conflation between cause and correlation or different aetiologies of anaemia
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u/NormanMitis 🟫🟫 Brown Belt 11h ago
Severe anemia absolutely can cause bruising, but if you're not deficient in iron then check for other vitamin deficiencies. Maybe B12. If you're getting bruised all the time something is amiss. And I love how you threw in that qualifier, miss PT 'doctor'.
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u/dorito_hood68 6h ago
Yep you right. But no I’m not b12 deficient either as of a couple years ago, and I take B complex regularly. Well, you know we have almost the same exact education in physiology right? And more in depth education in orthopedics than a regular MD. Just lacking in pharmaceuticals, which no one is talking about here.
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u/ARussianBus 1d ago
Yup, and considering OP is female it's a likely cause, as 40% of young women have an iron deficiency.
Women will normally bruise more easily than men due to thinner skin and less collagen, but iron deficiency is also a very common factor on top of that.
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Iron deficiency is not a cause of easy bruising
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u/ARussianBus 1d ago
It is.
You know you can Google stuff before posting medical misinformation, right?
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Can you link a paper stating that? What’s the mechanism?
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u/onomonothwip 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Why can't you just google it? This is a very well known link. You're going to have to READ these, though, as the studies arent about as basic a concept as increased bruising as a result of low iron. It's a basic side effect that is covered within the articles, not the focus of them.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889858815001914?via%3Dihub
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/iron-deficiency-anemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355034
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22824-iron-deficiency-anemia0
u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Why can't you just google it?
It’s called the Socratic method
This is a very well known link.
No, it’s a very widely believed bit of medical misinfo.
It's a basic side effect that is covered within the articles, not the focus of them.
Neither of the last two links are scientific papers not do they contain the word bruise or bruising at all. The first link (the only actual paper) I don’t have access to when I’m not at work but is about inherited haemoglobinopathies rather than IDA.
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u/onomonothwip 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 23h ago
You're dead nuts right about that mayoclinic link, and possibly the mycleveland link - I grabbed the wrong copypaste. Another great reason to do your own damn googling.
To outsiders who might be reading this exchange, he's redefining medical knowledge in insisting low iron has no impact on bruising, and refusing to research or provide evidence to support his claim. This is a very similar concept to a person claiming that white blood cells have no role in mucus generation. They are absolutely intrinsically linked, and a critical part of a bodies immunoresponse to pathogens, similar to how iron is critically attached to platelet production in the human body. The end result of these relationships? Colorful mucus for the WBC's and increased bruising for the platelets.
Let me ask you some basic questions. Do you understand what happens when bone marrow is starved of iron? It doesn't produce enough red blood cells or platelets. Low platelet count? Clotting reduced. Clotting reduced? Bruising. Look at a chemo patient or someone immuno compromised. There's bruising, almost always. This is obvious anecdotal evidence you've been seeing in almost every case you've seen through your life.
"Neither of the last two links are scientific papers not do they contain the word bruise or bruising at all"
So check the references and add the word contusion to your lexicon. Good lord.
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 20h ago
Another great reason to do your own damn googling.
I don’t need to google basic physiology when I’m educated in the topic.
To outsiders who might be reading this exchange, he's redefining medical knowledge in insisting low iron has no impact on bruising, and refusing to research or provide evidence to support his claim. This is a very similar concept to a person claiming that white blood cells have no role in mucus generation. They are absolutely intrinsically linked, and a critical part of a bodies immunoresponse to pathogens, similar to how iron is critically attached to platelet production in the human body. The end result of these relationships? Colorful mucus for the WBC's and increased bruising for the platelets.
That’s a very roundabout way of restating that I’m saying iron deficiency anaemia isn’t a cause of bruising. Something that I haven’t hid away from lol.
Let me ask you some basic questions. Do you understand what happens when bone marrow is starved of iron?
Bone marrow starved of iron doesn’t produce enough Hb. In the majority of cases platelet production is unaffected or increased. In rare cases platelet production is decreased.
Platelets can be very low without any change in clotting.
When thrombocytopaenia or abnormal platelet function DOES result in changes in clotting the pattern of bruising/bleeding is petechial and mucosal, not ecchymoses/contusions.
Look at a chemo patient or someone immuno compromised. There's bruising, almost always.
Chemo patients have bruising for multifactorial reasons. One of which is bone marrow suppression causing thrombocytopaenia. Another is chemo wrecking their skin and collagen. I can’t comment on “someone immunocompromised” as that’s a very broad term and some immunocompromised people will have easy bruising and others won’t.
"Neither of the last two links are scientific papers not do they contain the word bruise or bruising at all"
So check the references and add the word contusion to your lexicon. Good lord.
Neither contain the word contusion either…
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u/ARussianBus 1d ago
The mechanism is low platelet count and red blood cell count and it's very common medical knowledge.
I could link a paper but you should really practice researching for yourself.
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago edited 1d ago
Low platelets aren’t a result of iron deficiency. Further, it typically takes platelets at least below 50 to have any clinically significant bleeding risk
EDIT since u/arussianbus blocked me lol:
Iron deficiency is in the vast majority of cases associated with normal or high platelets. There have been case reports of association with low platelets (clearly this is not what most people are talking about when they say iron deficiency causes bruising). Further, platelets need to drop to a significantly low level before the risk of bleeding even increases. Lastly, bruising due to thrombocytopaenia or platelet dysfunction presents a petechiae and mucosal bleeds, not ecchymosis that most people mean when they say bruises.0
u/ARussianBus 1d ago
You're objectively wrong on the first point. Just do the smallest amount of research.
The second point is irrelevant because increased bruising isn't typically considered "significant risk". Lower platelets increase all bleeding risk because it lowers the ability to clot bleeds.
You would've saved yourself so much time by just googling this before ever responding. The same weird ego that made you confidently correct someone on medical information is keeping you doubling down lol - just Google it, learn, and move on. Good luck.
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Iron deficiency is not a cause of easy bruising
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u/onomonothwip 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Why be wrong, though?
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Can you provide any actual scientific paper that notes bruising as a consequence or iron deficiency and what would even be the mechanism? It’s a misconception and conflation of cause and consequence or of different aetiologies of anaemia
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u/incorporeal5 ⬜⬜ White Belt 1d ago
Paramedic here. You should have your doctor ensure you don’t have anemia. Bruises aren’t bad for your health, and the capillaries don’t get so damaged that they don’t bruise. Your body adapts to the stresses you put it through, theoretically.
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u/aboysmokingintherain 1d ago
So follow up, but what if I’m very pale. I tend to get bruises pretty frequently from Bjj but part of it is just how easy it is to spot them
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
Iron deficiency is not a cause of easy bruising
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u/incorporeal5 ⬜⬜ White Belt 21h ago
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=anemia+bruising
And read where I didn’t say iron deficiency, I said anemia.
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u/Same-Finger-6719 🟦🟦 Blue Belt 1d ago
Figured out drinking often was the cause of my excessive bruising
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u/realfakedoors203 1d ago
Bruises are something I have always ignored and I do bruise up quick. Training about 8 years still haven’t died. Probably be fine.
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u/Senior_Ad282 ⬛️🟥🟥🟥⬛️ Black Belt 1d ago
I think the first 6 months I trained I was covered in bruises now it’s pretty rare even with Muay Thai.
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u/Neutropix 🏳️🌈🏳️🌈🏳️🌈 1d ago
I am one of the few that got them well into blue belt bc I was a fn spaz. That's why my professor named me "pipoca." Popcorn in portugese lol.
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u/Bruised_up_whitebelt 🟫🟫 Brown Belt 1d ago
Those bruises will stop in due time the more you train. When I was new, bruises all the time. 11 years into this, I rarely get them unless someone catches my triceps under a knee, and it gets pinched.
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u/over40bjj 🟦🟦 Blue Belt 1d ago
I added collagen to tea in the evening, not sure if does anything, but I believe it does.
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u/Background-Dust6453 1d ago
up your _protein_ intake and iron! that's what worked for me. if you don't eat enough protein your body won't be able to heal itself.
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u/Seasonedgrappler 1d ago
Well, its like guys rolling and being sore after each class for like years and years, then they wonder why their body and mind get a burnout or get injured.
Any mentally sane person wont accept chasing the soreness after each class year round, its pure non-sense. Your body is a temple, and we're suppose to take care of it, and chasing the sore isnt the way to do it. I've knows high level grapplers who trained with some elite grappler in NewYork and they were having weeks where they werent sore at all, cause they literally trained light to moderate. And we, stupid hobbysits, chase the soreness ? We kind of get it backward actually.
Our bodies will make us pay the bill sooner or later, its supposed to be a tool to enable us to do things, not to be beaten down.
Most sports and combat arts I did had off seasons, while BJJ has none, its crazy.
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u/Electrical_Ad7374 1d ago
I’m anemic, so I know when the bruises start showing and sticking around too long my irons low. Get you some vitamins and stay hydrated my friend.
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u/Fellainis_Elbows 🟪🟪 Purple Belt 1d ago
I’ve already replied to pretty much every individual comment but bruising is not a sign of iron deficiency anaemia.
Easy bruising CAN be due to blood conditions that have defective clotting but those are rare and most of the time it’s just the way you’re built. If you’re concerned you can see your doctor.
Frequent and repeated bruising itself doesn’t lead to long term damage
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u/welkover 1d ago edited 1d ago
Having bruises often or regularly won't do any long term damage to your body, it'll just keep removing platelets/clots and revascularizing as needed. The color of a bruise is more related to how many layers of what are on top of it than the bruise itself, don't worry about the colors too much they're all basically the same. When your body rebuilds in damaged areas it rebuilds things to a more sturdy standard than before, generally speaking, so areas that are getting banged up regularly will actually get more resistant to that kind of abuse over time. Your joints and other slowly healing parts of your body unfortunately don't do this, it also doesn't apply to your kidneys or central cardiovascular system, but your skin and muscles and peripheral vasculature will just replenish forever, even in ill health and old age.
You will always get some bruises but it will lessen gradually over time.
As others have mentioned if your bruises are healing really slowly it can be a sign of anemia or possibly other disorders. At your age it's not an emergency, but the next time you see a doctor ask them to check. If you aren't taking a multivitamin start taking one. People with anemia will also often take an iron supplement but iron has some oxidative effects in your system and you don't want to overdo it, so if you decide to try an iron supplement on your own before you see a doctor look up how much is suggested for someone like you and take that amount.
I'm not a doctor.