Senile Purpura

[pam7419]

Hello Sarah:  Do you think dermarolling would help with the purpura I have on my forearms?  Have already been to the doctor and he says that I'm healthy and that there's nothing he can do about it; dermatologist said the same thing; they both said something about "older, sun-damaged skin."  Thank you.

[cj123]

Hi Pam  I had to jump in here since I was just reading something about senile purpura. The book I'm reading is called The Real Vitamin & Mineral Book by Shari Lieberman. In the chapter on zinc it says that there were some studies done on skin conditions. In one study elderly people who had senile purpura --purple spots under the skin caused by bleeding-- were found to be zinc deficient.

It seems zinc both oral and topical is used to treat these skin conditions. Might be worth a try, although from what you write it almost sounds like you have liver spots and not senile purpura.

[SarahVaughter]

Senile purpura is caused by blood vessels becoming more fragile, mainly due to aging or in some cases due to sun damage. These fragile vessels tend to bruise extremely easily and without any seemingly adequate reason. The "purpura" is just a bruise. It slowly disappears by itself but sometimes it leaves permanent (iron) pigmentation.

A dermaroller cannot prevent the bruising (it has no effect on blood vessels) but it could speed up the disappearance of the post-bruising pigmentation. It will also slightly thicken the skin if used long term and that may slightly help (not significantly since the problem lays in the
vessels mainly).

The best would be a 0.2 mm dermaroller used about every second day. Please let us know in several months whether it faded the pigmentation.

[pam7419]

Thanks for the reply; I'll post results in a few months.