Bruising from Kale/spinach?

[unbent]

Hello all,

I am wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this? A gentleman at work wanted to lose weight and improve his health and I loaned him a David Wolfe DVD ( one of his seminars on raw foods ) and suggested that he increase his intake of leafy greens via salads and green smoothies. He has been eating salads with spinach and/or kale and drinking smoothies with the same. Since he has started doing this he has noticed that his skin is becoming easily bruised and showed me numerous bruises on his skin. He is going to see his doctor tomorrow and is in his late 50's, early 60's. I asked him if he was taking any blood thinners as my mom could not eat foods high in vitamin K because it counteracts it. He said no. I have not heard of anyone have this issue as a result of increasing greens and drinking green smoothies. If anyone has any insight here I would love to hear it. I would not be happy with myself if advise that I gave him is causing this, regardless of good intentions.

Thanks,

Andy

[Revvell]

Aren't there other ingredients in his smoothies and salads besides spinach and kale?

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. When I work on people (deep tissue bodywork) they'll often have bruising at first. It's just toxins coming to the surface. It tends to dissipate.

But then, I'm not him and he's not my client.

Revvell

[Rawlicious]

I don't post here often but I must reply to Revvell's reply that bruising is just toxins coming to the surface. I am assuming that you are a registered massage therapist. I am also a registered massage therapist and I disagree about the bruising. Bruising is injury of tissue without breaking the skin. Injury to the surface of the skin causes the discoloration. I don't believe it has anything to do with toxins. That is just my opinion but I believe if you look it up in any dictionary or medical journal that is what you will find.

[RowanC]

I wonder if he's taking ibuprofin for anything?

When I fell last month and had the huge hematoma on my hip, it just kept bleeding. Then I did some research and found out that the ibuprofin I was taking for the pain was a blood thinner. Duhhh....:eek:

When I stopped taking the ibuprofin, the bleeding stopped.

[Frugal Raw]

This can also be caused by a vitamin C deficiency. Check other areas of his diet.

[cayenne]

For one thing, greens are loaded with vitamin K. 40 g of kale, which I entered today, had 500 % the RDA of vitamin K, so it is difficult to understand how those greens can lead to bruising. The only thing I can imagine is that toxins came to the surface in stead of being eliminated via the proper channels. May be this made his skin more sensitive to minor trauma's?

[unbent]

Cayenne, I thought the same thing. I talked with him this morning and asked him about the Ibuprophen (sp) and he said that yes he had been taking ibuprophen as well as aspirin. He also mentioned that he saw his doctor and mentioned it to him and he (the dr.) said it wasn't the greens it was the Ibuprophen/aspirin combo.. Needless to say, he is no longer taking the two. Thanks for all of your help.

Andy

[jaurequi]

Good you figured it out. Ibuprofen is bad news. All the best to your friend. You seem to be a very good one yourself :)

Best,

[blix]

Cayenne, I thought the same thing. I talked with him this morning and asked him about the Ibuprophen (sp) and he said that yes he had been taking ibuprophen as well as aspirin.

Andy

I have started taking White Willow bark instead of Ibuprofen and it doesn't upset my stomach. You could suggest this to him.