Stretch Marks – Even the Name Sounds Ugly

November 1st, 2009 by Robert Smith Discuss this article »

I don’t care how much you think your skin is immune to stretch marks – like death and taxes, stretch marks on your body are inevitable. Even though they don’t hurt, they are ugly and embarrassing. Bad news – you are stuck with them forever unless you get surgery or dermabrasion. But why on earth do we get stretch marks?

First of all, even though you see stretch marks on the top, outside layer of your skin, the stretching occurs underneath in the lower layer of your skin. Of the 3 layers, your outer layer or epidermis just exists to keep things out of your body. The second layer is the dermis, and the collagen and elasticity is where the stretching takes place. The hypodermis is the lowest layer, made up of fat & other tissues.

Stretch marks, also known as stria atrophica, form in the dermis layer of your skin. In fact, stretch marks are literally tears in the dermis. Now stretch marks should not be confused with scars, although they do appear quite similar when looking at them. Scars are made of fibrotic tissue which is simply not present in stretch marks.

The dermis is elastic. These special fibers are what allow your skin to stretch. Rapid growth can weaken your skin’s elasticity and can break the fibers that hold it together. The stretch marks occur when the skin grows faster than these elastic fibers can handle.

Occasionally, you can get stretch marks when this rapid growth doesn’t happen. Poor diet and improper nutrition can hurt the body and cause it to produce less of the things that it needs to have elastic and healthy skin. If you smoke, this can also weaken the ability for the skin to stretch. But you need to have some growth for the skin to stretch, even with these factors.

Stretch marks are very common problems associated with pregnancy because this is a period of rapid growth for women. Any period of rapid weight gain will most likely be accompanied by stretch marks and they are common factors in obesity. However, it is possible for heredity to be a factor as some people have proven more prone to stretch marks than others.

Even though the initial red and purple marks will fade, the final look will appear to be a scar. The discoloring eventually lightens into a whitish brown mark. It ends up looking like a lighter version of your skin.

Even though they are embarrassing to some, they are mainly painless. After we lose our baby fat, or enter puberty, we can these marks. But the main point is that most people get them at some point. Keep eating a healthy & well-balanced diet to prevent gaining a lot of weight at a quick time. This will give you a head-start against stretch marks.

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