Explaining Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are visible linear scars. Stretch marks form in areas where the skin is incapable of withstanding overstretching and the elastin and collagen fibers reach their capacity. Skin weakens and eventually fail resulting in tears in the dermal skin layer. This shows up on a thinner skin surface as visibly curled stripes and in fact are bands of elastin broken beneath the skin. Rather than scarring from external wounds stretch marks are scars formed from the inside. Stretch marks are thus scar tissue created by your body in response to healing damage caused by overstretched skin that is too thin. The body uses stretch marks to heal itself quickly using its own resources. They are however hard to get rid of once formed as their length, discolouration, depth and texture are quite prominent.
Stretch marks tend to occur during pregnancy, growth spurts, bodybuilding while on steroids, or when other hormonal imbalances may be at work. In the United States alone stretch marks effect approximately 90% of pregnant women, 70% of adolescent females, and 40% of adolescent males. Discoloration from stretch marks does fade over time, but unfortunately, the striated appearance rarely returns to its original smooth appearance.
Its speculated that the way a person's skin heals is a good indicator of the depth and severity of stretch marks they may eventually see. People whose skin heals well with minimal scarring can expect less obvious stretch marks, whereas skin that heals poorly (or slowly) or tends to develop raised or thickened scars can generally expect stretch marks that are more pronounced.
Treat Stretch Marks
Minimising stretch marks in the first place is the best thing to do to treat them. Eating healthy with lots of vitamins and minerals and drinking lots of water is the simplest prevention. Keeping your skin moisturized and healthy is important as this keeps it elastic and thus less likely to form stretch marks. Furthermore regular exercise will help keep your skin healthy and elastic.
Many different treatment creams have tried to have tried to prevent stretch marks or improve their appearance. Most stretch mark treatments found on the market aim to replenish the skin matrix by stimulating the making of collagen and elastin.
This approach is usually insufficient or fails in people affected by atrophic skin, which is where the skin is thin and lacks strength the stretch beyond what its used to. Fortunately there are new products by dermatologists being developed always and some have these have proved very effective especially for women with pregnancy stretch marks.

By: Louise Lundgren

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