Red Dots On Skin – What Causes Them?

by admin on February 16, 2012

>Many people experience red dots on skin, and although a doctor or health care worker should take a look to make sure, often times they are not serious. Red dots the size of a pin or larger, up to a few millimetres in diameter that show up on the skin, as either flat or as a dome, may be the result of blood vessels near the surface of the skin. The medical name for this is cherry angiomas, or cherry haemangioma but they are also called Campbell De Morgan spots or Senile angiomas ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_hemangioma ). They are generally harmless, although they may bleed easily, and care should be taken in these instances to make sure that they do not become infected.  Nowadays, cherry angiomas can be removed very quickly by laser treatment if they are causing bleeding, or for cosmetic purposes.

Of course cherry angiomas are not the only thing that result in red dots on skin, as there are diseases and conditions which also result in rashes and red bumps on the skin. Diagnosis is helped by noticing whether the redness on the skin is itchy, and whether this itchiness occurs only at night. Red marks on the skin may be caused by insect bites, and if these occur overnight, you may need to consider bed bugs as the culprits. There are a lot more cases of bed bug infestations around the world now, and as these nasty pests can easily be transported in luggage, it is not unusual for them to come from other countries, and take hold in apartment buildings or hotels, even top class hotels. Bed bugs feed on human blood, and if you have them in your bedroom, you may be given the clue by having small smears of blood over the sheets, as well as having red bumps on your skin, that may or may not be intensely itchy.

Allergic reactions to chemicals or foods can cause red bumps on the skin too, but in this case there is a good chance that they will be itchy as well, and will often be raised rather than flat. However, discovering the source of an allergy can be difficult and time consuming as there are so many possibilities, from the food we eat to the detergents we use to wash our clothes to the often polluted air we breathe.

Petechiae is the result of bleeding under the skin as a result of broken blood vessels which form red dots about the size of a pin head or smaller. Also erythema which is a redness of the skin should not be confused with bleeding. If there is bleeding under the skin, then pressing on the area will not cause the area to pale or blanch. In fact, in the case of cherry angiomas, many report that pressure on these will cause them to pale significantly, before the bright red returns upon removing the pressure.

Discovering the cause of red dots on your skin may not be easy, and searching the internet for the answers can throw you into a panic with all of the possible diseases that it could be. So be forewarned, and if you have any health concerns at all, then seek out the advice of a qualified medical doctor or health care worker, and if you don’t get the help you need from them, then try another doctor or specialist. Your health is worth the inconvenience, whether red dots on the skin seem like a major concern or not.

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