Skin Collagen & Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are a very common skin condition that can affect both men and women.  Stretch marks are little grooves in the skin, when they first are developing they may be red, and then change to purple, to eventually fade to where they are lighter than your normal skin color.  Though stretch marks aren’t harmful in any way they are sometimes unflattering, which is why most people will try anything to get rid of them. 

 

Collagen & Your Skin

What happens to your skin when you develop stretch marks is the collagen bundles under the skin tear leaving the skin wrinkled and lined.  There is no cure for 100% getting rid of stretch marks.  There are lots of things you can do to reduce appearance, and boost collagen in the skin.  The main areas that are affected by stretch marks are arms, back, breasts, buttocks, hips, shoulders, stomach, and torso.  Though stretch marks can appear anywhere on the body that undergoes a change in size. 

 

Risk Factors

The main causes of stretch marks are from your body changing size too quickly.  The change too quickly causes your skin to not be able to grow causing the stretching to occur.  Quick weight gain can happen from puberty, pregnancy, increased muscle mass or getting breast implants.  It has also shown that stretch marks may run in families, be genetic, or caused by your hormone levels.  

Having people in your family with stretch  marks makes you at a higher risk of getting them yourself.  Other risks could be women who are pregnant young, women who gain excess weight during pregnancy, or someone who is taking steroids.  Steroids can cause more breakdown in a person’s collagen.  

 

Prevention

The best treatment for stretch marks is prevention.  Never getting them allows you to never have to get rid of them.  Prevention can be making sure you moisturize your skin daily.  Make sure you are also hydrating your body from within, making sure you are drinking enough water helps illuminate your skin from the inside out.  Other prevention tricks are to use oils, use proper sunscreen, maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid sudden weight gain.  Don’t get too upset though if you try to prevent stretch marks and still get them, some people are more predisposed to get them than others. 

 

At Home Treatments

All treatments take time.  Repairing the skin takes time as well, it is your biggest organ.  There are a lot of things you can do at home to help repair your stretch marks so the appearance of them fade.  There are tons of over the counter creams, lotions, and oils that will tell you they will make your stretch marks disappear.  Read these carefully so you know what ingredients are in them.  Remember stretch marks won’t be healed 100%, just appearance will fade. 

A good thing to do at home is to exfoliate once a week, this can be with a dry brush, or exfoliating scrubs.  And exfoliator brushes off the dead skin allowing new healthy skin to grow in its place.  Using something like a sugar scrub can also be beneficial to exfoliating your skin.  Rubbing a sugar scrub daily during a shower can be just as effective as getting microdermabrasion done by a dermatologist. 

Vitamin A is a great vitamin for helping reduce stretch marks.  It is a retinoid which helps the skin appear smoother.  You can take vitamin A orally, or apply it in cream form.  Adding vitamin A rich foods such as carrots and sweet potatoes can also help you boost your skin smoothness. 

Other helpful agents you can use at home are pure aloe vera, which is a healing agent, can make the skin feel softer, and is great to use right after a shower. 

Hyaluronic acid is a stimulant that helps boost collagen production. 

Coconut oil is also a great one to try out. It will help with getting rid of the appearance of the stretch marks. 

Trying an egg white peel, aloe vera, honey scrub, lemon juice, cocoa butter, olive oil, almond oil, or coconut oil have all shown to be effective in helping reduce stretch mark appearance at home.  

 

Read More:  Stretch Marks Facts And Fiction

 

Medical Treatments

Home remedies are not the only option for stretch marks.  You can do microdermabrasion done by a dermatologist which sucks off all the dead skin on your skin for an extreme exfoliator. 

Another treatment you can get done is laser treatment.  Pulsed dye laser treatment can be done to help increase collagen production. 

CO2 laser therapy is also a laser treatment option to boost collagen production.  Platelet-rich plasma can increase collagen and revive the skin. 

In severe cases you can have plastic surgery done.  Though plastic surgery doesn’t necessarily remove the stretch marks it can help cover up some of them. 

Having a tummy tuck, thigh lift, removes excess skin, which can remove the stretch marks from those areas. 

Speak with your dermatologist before you want to try any of these procedures.  Some of these procedures can get pricey, and may take multiple sessions before results are seen.

 

Conclusion

Stretch marks can make your self esteem low, or you have insecurities about your skin.  Stretch marks can happen to both women and men.  There is no cure to get rid of them 100%, but you can do things at home or procedures done in a dermatologist’s office to help lessen the appearance of your stretch marks.  Prevention can be the best treatment in stopping stretch marks to appear.  All treatment options take time, and stretch marks you have had for a long time will be harder to lessen in appearance.  Stay patient though when you try something, it may take a few weeks or sessions of trying a treatment before you see some results.  

 

The main cause of stretch marks is rapid weight gain!



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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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Written by HealthStatus Team
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our blood alcohol, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years. Our team of health professionals, and researchers use peer reviewed studies as source elements in our articles. Our high quality content has been featured in a number of leading websites, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Live Strong, GQ, and many more.

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