Preventing nosebleeds?

[Neo Sigma]

I've heard putting a bit of bacitracin or vaseline up your nose beforehand will help keep it moisturized and bleed a little less. Some people are just naturally bleeders, though.

[Grey_Southpaw]

my coach has us use bag balm which is a lanolin based salve. I have seen it work well for many of our fighters who have weak noses (including myself). He just has us apply it before bed and it seems to clear up the nosebleeds without continued use. This is kind of a home remedy, so to speak, so you will want to consult your physician before starting any kind of regimen.

[BackFistMonkey]

The most obvious answers besides "don't get hit" are missing.

You need to keep your hands up and work on your head movement in conjunction with your footwork. You are a bleeder.

**** happens.

Ask your coach what he thinks. Then go from there. The only solutions are not something you should be doing on your own, besides being a fucking man and stuffing your nose when working with head shots.

[ChenPengFi]

I've had great success for myself and others, stopping the bleeding by stuffing a wad of gauze under the upper lip.
It should be about the size of a cigarette butt.
Ymmv.

[bobyclumsyninja]

I have an upturned English nose, and it bleeds relatively easy. I used to compensate, by aiming to better keep my guard up, and bring my hands straight back to my face after punching. I used to put priority on not getting hit in the nose, as my eyes would tear, and then I'd be more helpless than my already pathetic self.

Could dehydration be a factor? It used to be for me, IMO.

[Thebearjoe]

had this same problem for a while, if its dryness you can try salt water drops in your nose. The doctor had me do that and it pretty much fixed it.

[jdempsey]

At times I've had this too. After reading about dehydration^ maybe that was why, that and dust from work. And probably from picking my nose too much.
Try "warming up" your nose- push it side to side and squash it several times. Also the vaso thing. When that failed me I'd stuff toilet paper up there.

[IHaveSeenFnords]

tell your GP you need it cauterized, and why. you may need it done several times but it is worth it.

[BryanW]

Nothing I'll say should be a replacement for medical advice from your physician.

Ok disclaimer aside....

Be careful with cauterizing. If its not done correctly it may make the problem worse or give you unforeseen side-effects. Make sure if someone does it, they're doing it for the right reasons and know what they're doing. Don't have your GP do it. Get a real ENT doc who specializes in this stuff to do it if this is something serious enough and means enough to you that you want to electively burn your nose.

In general there are two types of "nosebleeds" (also known as epistaxis): Anterior and Posterior.

Anterior in general is caused by a collection of small blood vessels known as Kiesselbach's plexus. Posterior is by Woodruff's plexus, a venous plexus. Anterior is the more common of the two by far. Posterior won't stop by pinching your nose generally because its too far back.

Trauma (aka being punched in the nose or picking your nose and causing an abrasion) is a common cause but basically anything damaging the mucosa can cause it. So those moisturizers are basically trying to prevent dryness from being a factor but wont totally prevent trauma from giving you a nosebleed. They can help though.

Some people just structurally have variations that cause them to bleed. You can't control that so easily, but other things to consider though are some anti-inflammatories and medications that MA practitioners take....(aspirin, high dose ibuprofen), alcohol, and some supplements can make nosebleeds (and other bleeding) more frequent and easier to come across because it messes with your ability to form clots.

On the rare, scary side a doc usually will ask you about other symptoms to try to make sure you don't have some rare blood disorder.

If you get a nosebleed and its not stopping via ice, pinching your nose, etc etc then besides cautery there are other devices that can be used to basically create pressure and also help the body clot in that area. There's a reason why a lot of docs go to those methods before burning a hole in your nasal septum.

My "internet advice" is to talk to a specialist first before trying to strong arm a GP into trying to fix a symptom. It might be something else, potentially fixable without a procedure. If everything looks ok and nothing weird is going on, then you can still get cauterized.