Training & Nutrition - Bruises. What to do?

Well, had a small accident on Friday which resulted in some deep tissue bruises to my chest (pectoral area). I've been taking a daily dosage of 81mg of baby aspirin for the last 6 months or so which helped contribute to the severity of the bruises (I think). Yesterday (Sunday) I finally applied ice packs to the bruises. Seems to make a little bit of good. Today at work I have been massaging the affected area in hopes of getting that stationary blood moving again. Should switch to a heat pack once I get home or continue with the ice? Should I discontinue the use of the aspirin too? The bruises are very unsightly and I need to get rid of them ASAP. Thanks.

Rob

If you are taking the baby aspirin under the advice of a doctor for heart problems, don't stop without consulting your doctor.

For the bruises, I have two suggestions. One is Arnica cream. It is a homeopathic concoction.

Another is an old wive's remedy that works. I know because I have used in bruises and swelling on my knees.

Dice half a raw onion and put it in one of those sandwich bags with the air tight seal. Put in a "goodly" amount of table salt, at least three heaping tablespoons. Seal it up tight. Now the hard part, put in on top of the bruised area and use something to keep it in place. On my knees, I used an ace bandage wrapped losely around it, but the "old wife" who told me about it said to use a towel.

I am not kidding, this actually worked. The next morning, no bruises, no swelling, and almost no pain.

Well, had a small accident on Friday which resulted in some deep tissue bruises to my chest (pectoral area). I've been taking a daily dosage of 81mg of baby aspirin for the last 6 months or so which helped contribute to the severity of the bruises (I think). Yesterday (Sunday) I finally applied ice packs to the bruises. Seems to make a little bit of good. Today at work I have been massaging the affected area in hopes of getting that stationary blood moving again. Should switch to a heat pack once I get home or continue with the ice? Should I discontinue the use of the aspirin too? The bruises are very unsightly and I need to get rid of them ASAP. Thanks.

Rob

Are we just talking about the normal bruises everyone gets from time to time or something on a much larger scale. I must have had hundreds of bruises through my life when I was growing up, some cycling related, some not... I just get on with life and let the bruises heal naturally or wait for them to disappear. If its the type of bruises I'm thinking about, its not much of a big deal. Ice Paks, Heat Paks?????????....

Vit. X, I don't know. You be the judge. Photo was taken Sunday about 36 hrs after the accident and prior to any ice packs.

TR,

I'm going to try the onion rememdy tonight. Wish me luck. I'll report back in the morning.

Those are normal bruises. Just let them heal naturally. I took a crash a few months ago and had trail rash and deep tissue bruising where I took a set of Carbon Fiber Eastons in the back and snapped them in half. My boyfriend (now husband) made me take a couple of days off riding, but I couldn't do abdominal work for a week. My back and abs weren't bruised, though. They should disappear in a week or so.

If you need to cover them, there's always the makeup option.

For the bruises, I have two suggestions. One is Arnica cream. It is a homeopathic concoction.

Is this generally available at vitamin/health food retailers ? Do you have a brand preference ?


...
Another is an old wive's remedy that works.
...
Dice half a raw onion and put it in one of those sandwich bags with the air tight seal. Put in a "goodly" amount of table salt, at least three heaping tablespoons. Seal it up tight. Now the hard part, put in on top of the bruised area and use something to keep it in place. On my knees, I used an ace bandage wrapped losely around it, but the "old wife" who told me about it said to use a towel.

How could this work ? Plastic is impermeable, at least by salty onions. Any ideas ?

Dan

Is this generally available at vitamin/health food retailers ? Do you have a brand preference ?

How could this work ? Plastic is impermeable, at least by salty onions. Any ideas ?

Dan

The compression from the Ace bandage may have done it. The sports orthopedics who treat from the side lines place compressive bandages or Aces immediatly after a sprain/strain before icing it. They say it works better than just icing and elevation. I'm still trying to figure out the salty onions through the impermeable plastic but old wives remedies are not to be shrugged off lightly.

Thanks folks. Tried the salty onions and it seems to have reduced the bruising somewhat, although not completely gone. The downside is keeping still in your sleep. God forbid you rollover in your sleep and rupture the bag. That and the smell the next day (yes even after a shower). I will just let nature run it's course and use the heat packs.

One of my husband's tricks to avoid bruises from getting wanged by raquetballs and raquetball raquets is to apply firm pressure immediately to the wanged region .for at least 30 seconds; a minute or two is much better. Little or no bruising.

Another remedy, good but requiring immediate attention, is the application of ice packs to the whacked area. You must do this ASAP, hopefully immediately after the bruising whack, but at least within the first 10 minutes or so. Wrap the ice pack in a towel and try to keep the pack on and off (you don't want to get frostbite) for a minimum of 20 minutes: keep the skin cold and apply pressure with the ice pack. My kids, when toddlers, would fall while learning to walk and get what usually would be big ol' rainbow goose eggs on their foreheads. Then someone told me about the ice pack trick and most of the time there wasn't any mark or only a little tiny bruise at the point of impact.

And I gotta ask, why is it so important that you need to get rid of these bruises so fast? I am not trying to be smart@ss with you, but they will heal on their own pretty soon.

How could this work ? Plastic is impermeable, at least by salty onions. Any ideas ?

Dan

I have absolutely no idea how and if this would work BUT!

Chop an onion in half, wrap it in plastic wrap and then put it in the fridge. Come back the next day and tell me plastic wrap is impermeable.

To spoil the surprise, plastic wrap allows many organic compounds through, including the stench of onions. There may be something to this little trick...

Foehn,

It's just that they are very unsightly. When I go to the gym, people kinda look. They are starting to go away on there own but it will take another week. :(

Foehn,

It's just that they are very unsightly. When I go to the gym, people kinda look. They are starting to go away on there own but it will take another week. :(

Don't worry about them.

When you see people staring use the old classic:

"You should see the other guy!"

:D

Foehn,

It's just that they are very unsightly. When I go to the gym, people kinda look. They are starting to go away on there own but it will take another week. :(

You're missing out on a lot of fun--just tell people that you were out riding and chased a wild bull out of your path by crashing into him and vaulting over his head. Or how about you were abducted by aliens and you fought off their "probes"!

Or, on a variation of Croak's, tell people "You should see the other GUYS!"

Oh, I forgot to add that about a month ago my husband was splitting wood with wedge and a sledgehammer and hit his leg hard, just above his ankle, but luckily it was a glancing blow. I thought he had broken it at first and it did start to try to swell, but we got ice on it immediately for half and hour. When the pain had subsided somewhat he wrapped it in an ace bandage and kept ice on and off of it into the evening. He hardly had a bruise, let alone a bump! Barely andy "purty" colors.

Ice for bruises works well, but you have to do it right away, which can be difficult if you are out riding.

after my accident back in April, I had a large hematome on my leg, just below the knee. There was sufficient blood pooled beneath my skin, that the swelling would NOT go down, and I needed surgery to remove it. They waited several weeks before doing the surgery to let the swelling naturally reduce as much as possible. The iron in the blood leached out into the surrounding tissue, leaving me with a nice sized brown spot on my leg. Doc says it'll fade some, but not much. It'll be there forever.

after my accident back in April, I had a large hematome on my leg, just below the knee. There was sufficient blood pooled beneath my skin, that the swelling would NOT go down, and I needed surgery to remove it. They waited several weeks before doing the surgery to let the swelling naturally reduce as much as possible. The iron in the blood leached out into the surrounding tissue, leaving me with a nice sized brown spot on my leg. Doc says it'll fade some, but not much. It'll be there forever.

Don't feel bad, I have a calcified hematoma on my forehead.

Bruises are finally gone. Still have a few lumps (coagulated blood) under the skin. Just an observation, exercise seemed to help. I assume it's because it helps with the circulation of blood.

Okay here's probably the most nasty one yet. Back when I was about 16 or 17, me and a group of guys were playing basket ball in a guy. There was a desk under one of the hoops and against a wall. I was playing pretty hard and was in a hurry to do a lay up. Well, running faster doesn't make the basket any more makable, and yes it amde it where that desk got in the way. I had a very deep bruise, so deep that I thought I had broken the leg itself. I had a bruise from my lower butt cheek down to the very top of my knee on the back side of my right leg.

One of the people that was there sent her daughter home and had her get this water and tobacco concoction and wrapped it around my leg with a couple of paper towels and an ace bandage. The entire bruising was gone in 2 days, and that's no joke. It has to be the old fashioned chewing tobacco that is like chunks of leaf's wrapped together.

Okay here's probably the most nasty one yet. Back when I was about 16 or 17, me and a group of guys were playing basket ball in a guy. There was a desk under one of the hoops and against a wall. I was playing pretty hard and was in a hurry to do a lay up. Well, running faster doesn't make the basket any more makable, and yes it amde it where that desk got in the way. I had a very deep bruise, so deep that I thought I had broken the leg itself. I had a bruise from my lower butt cheek down to the very top of my knee on the back side of my right leg.

One of the people that was there sent her daughter home and had her get this water and tobacco concoction and wrapped it around my leg with a couple of paper towels and an ace bandage. The entire bruising was gone in 2 days, and that's no joke. It has to be the old fashioned chewing tobacco that is like chunks of leaf's wrapped together.


To add another variation of old fashioned or homemade remedies...in this case a native remedy... when I was 10 years old living in Penang, Malaysia , I was swimming and got stung by a man of war jelly fish whose top had been blown off by a recent typhoon. I was paralyzed by pain and some local fisherman saw that I was in trouble and fished me out. Then, a group of them gathered around me and pissed all over my legs.. where I had sustained the greatest amount of contact. The relief was immediate, although not complete, and my mom had time to get me off the island to the mainland for treatment at a hospital.

chill, bobsled

the bruises will go away unless you get more of them....








Jacob

Well, being Chinese and having grown up among a lot of folks who do martial arts, I've learned that when you get a bruise, it's very important to get fresh blood circulating in the bruised area. What we do is buy some "Kung Fu oil" from the local Chinese pharmacy and rub it liberally around the wound while applying heavy pressure on the bruise (with the base of your palm or with your thumbs). You have to message the wound for maybe 15-20 minutes. The "Kung Fu oil" is basically menthol and camphor, so it's not strictly a mystery concoction. I think the idea is to get heat flowing in the area so you dissiplate the old blood and get fresh blood flowing through the tissues. You will notice the difference the next morning.

I had a pretty bad crush this last spring when a little squirrel darting out from the bushes caused me to flip over my road bike on a fast descent. I did a couple of cartwheels while I almost flew off into a ravine. Fortunately I only got a few bruised ribs and a very badly bruised right pelvic bone. The bruise was literally black and blue. I rubbed the Kung Fu medicine on the bruise for a full 20 minutes and it hurt like hell. By the next morning the dark color had already dissipated. After 3-4 days of nightly rubbing, the area pretty much cleared up. If I hadn't done that, I think the bruise would have taken weeks to go away.

I'm not a doctor, so of course this is just my own experience and technique. But I don't think messaging the bruise is going to do any harm (unless you got something broken). You got to do it hard and feel the pain, though. As they say, no pain, no gain! It's true with messaging bruises.

Hope you recover soon!

-Kevin

chill, bobsled

the bruises will go away unless you get more of them....

Jacob

I'm telling you they're gone. ;)

Well, being Chinese and having grown up among a lot of folks who do martial arts, I've learned that when you get a bruise, it's very important to get fresh blood circulating in the bruised area. What we do is buy some "Kung Fu oil" from the local Chinese pharmacy and rub it liberally around the wound while applying heavy pressure on the bruise (with the base of your palm or with your thumbs). You have to message the wound for maybe 15-20 minutes. The "Kung Fu oil" is basically menthol and camphor, so it's not strictly a mystery concoction. I think the idea is to get heat flowing in the area so you dissiplate the old blood and get fresh blood flowing through the tissues. You will notice the difference the next morning.

I had a pretty bad crush this last spring when a little squirrel darting out from the bushes caused me to flip over my road bike on a fast descent. I did a couple of cartwheels while I almost flew off into a ravine. Fortunately I only got a few bruised ribs and a very badly bruised right pelvic bone. The bruise was literally black and blue. I rubbed the Kung Fu medicine on the bruise for a full 20 minutes and it hurt like hell. By the next morning the dark color had already dissipated. After 3-4 days of nightly rubbing, the area pretty much cleared up. If I hadn't done that, I think the bruise would have taken weeks to go away.

I'm not a doctor, so of course this is just my own experience and technique. But I don't think messaging the bruise is going to do any harm (unless you got something broken). You got to do it hard and feel the pain, though. As they say, no pain, no gain! It's true with messaging bruises.

Hope you recover soon!

-Kevin

I'm going over to Chinatown (L.A.) next week. So if I ask there will they know what I'm talking about or will they just look at me as if I had two heads?

This is what you want...

http://www.makedostudio.com/images/kung-fu-medicine.jpg

About $1.50 a bottle up here in San Francisco. Get a couple more for stocking stuffers! :D

Warning: The stuff smells like a combination of herbal medicine and camphor. I don't mind 'cause I'm used to it, but people with weak olfactory tolerance will let you know how they feel as soon as they get a whiff of it!

Let us know if it works out!

-Kevin