A Wonderleaf question
Why do bruises change color?
a real page from the book
Bruises change color because trapped blood under your skin is being cleaned up. Tiny vessels break, blood leaks into nearby tissue, and your body breaks down hemoglobin, the red oxygen-carrying part of blood. As it changes, the bruise shifts through dark, green, and yellow tones.
That color show is a repair timetable. Cleanup cells collect the mess, iron gets reused, and yellow pigments are handled by the liver. By the time the mark fades, the spilled blood has been taken apart and cleared away.
Wonder words
- capillaries
- hemoglobin
- biliverdin
- bilirubin
Try it out
Gently compare old and new bruise colors, or sketch a pretend bruise timeline from purple to yellow.
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