deficient in this nutrient.

You can get your Daily Value of zinc (15 milligrams) by filling your plate with shellfish and other seafood as well as with whole grains and lean meats. In fact, just one steamed oyster contains a whopping 12.7 milligrams of zinc.

Zinc Food Source

Note: Frequent inexplicable bruising, although rare, may be a sign of a clotting disorder or an immune problem, or a side effect of some medication. If you find yourself bruising easily and frequently, see your doctor.

Vitamin C Food Source

connective tissues that give shape and elasticity to skin and blood vessels. As the body ages and those connective tissues lose strength, skin becomes thinner and blood ves­sels are more fragile. Sun exposure accelerates the breakdown of connective tissues, making older people who’ve spent years in the sun more susceptible to bleeding and bruising. The sun’s rays also deplete stores of vitamin C, the very vitamin that the body needs to protect cells and tissue from free radical damage.

Eating lots of fruits and veggies high in vitamin C, like citrus fruits, tomatoes, and broccoli, will provide a sufficient amount of vitamin C, but everyone (and their skin) will benefit by taking 60 milligrams of vitamin C every day.

Research has shown that topical products with vitamin C can prevent the damage caused by years of sun exposure and heal bruising in older skin. And when vitamin C is combined with vitamin E, the effects are even more powerful. Vitamin E and vitamin C work synergistically to repair tissues, so that same vitamin cocktail should help prevent bruising.

In a Duke University Medical Center study, two different formulas were applied to the back skin of nine volunteers who were then exposed to simulated sunlight. Those who received an antioxidant serum containing vitamins C and E had a 96 percent reduc­tion of sunburn cells and up to eight times the antioxidant protection of those who received the control formula.

One such formula, C E Ferulic, helps boost the antioxidant reservoirs the body dips into to help heal itself from bruises. However, since sunscreens and antioxidant formulas work in different parts of the skin and through different mechanisms, the formula must be applied to the skin first to neutralize oxida­tive stress. Once it’s absorbed, then the sunscreen can be applied.

Vitamin K Food Source

cases of aspirin poisoning or blood-thinner overdose. It’s also a favorite among plastic sur­geons, who use large doses on their patients to prevent post surgery bruising.

Now these benefits are accessible to the general public as well. Research shows that applying vitamin K topically can prevent and heal bruising from laser surgery and fade away bruises, even those occurring from purpura senilis.

In a study of 12 people with significant bruising, a longtime vitamin K investigator, applied vitamin K cream to one arm of each patient and an identical cream without vitamin K to the other. After 1 month, the arms treated with vitamin K had significantly fewer bruises than those treated with plain ointment.

Vitamin K

Even nutritionist also had use vitamin K cream on one side of a bruise but not on the other and found that the side treated with vitamin K healed in 5 to 7 days, while the untreated side took 11 to 13 days to heal.

Even though getting plenty of vitamin K—the Daily Value is 80 micro­grams—may be helpful, when you have a bruise or an area prone to bruising, you want large doses of vitamin K right where you need them, and the best way to get them there is topically.

Iron Mineral

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The problem is that many women don’t consume enough iron each day to make up for the 2.5 milligrams or so they lose each month during men­struation. Pregnant women need even more iron. Teens and women nearing menopause also often come up short.

Studies show that women ages 18 to 24 get about 10.7 milligrams a day, which is nowhere near the Daily Value of 18 milligrams.

An iron shortage leads to a reduction in hemoglobin, the iron-based pro­tein in red blood cells that lets these cells pick up

Iron Food Source

oxygen in the lungs and release it in tissues where oxygen is low. It’s simple enough; these cells simply can’t transport the oxygen you need. The cells even look pale under a microscope.

If you do have iron-deficiency anemia, your doctor will initially prescribe large amounts of iron—often 200 to 240 milligrams a day, usually in a form called ferrous sulfate. (Experts caution against taking this much iron with­out medical supervision.) Avoid using over-the-counter preparations such as enteritis-coated iron tablets or capsules containing slow-release granules, experts say. Both can interfere with the body’s ability to absorb the iron.

And make sure your doctor continues your treatment for a sufficient amount of time. Although your anemia will be corrected in 3 to 4 months, it takes an additional 6 to 12 months of therapy for your body’s iron stores to be replenished.

The large amount of iron used to correct anemia is not available through food, we still encourage women to eat more iron-containing foods. Even beef, a food often avoided since cholesterol became a bad word, is recommended to anemic women. It’s an unbeatable source of easily digested iron.