Stretch Marks

Stretch marks occur when your skin is stretched for a long period of time, and happens either by rapidly gaining or losing weight. Once the fibres in the skin are pulled or “stretched” to their maximum levels, they cause scars. While men are less prone to these unsightly lines it is not unusual for guys to get them.

What’s worse is that men can wear boxers and clothes that hide them, whereas most women will get some degree of stretch marks in their lifetime that are far more difficult to conceal. Let me tell you the reason: 70 per cent of teenage girls get stretch marks and more than 90 per cent of pregnant women get stretch marks. The reason for this is that teenage girls suffer through fast growth spurts as they go through puberty. Think about it; they suffer through the fat development of their breasts; the hips are spreading and much more changes occur to the teenage body.

Pregnant women have to sit by and watch every part of their bodies grow. Naturally their stomachs grow rapidly to the point of no return. And with this sudden growth comes inevitable stretch marks. And don’t forget that if you have blond or red hair, have dry skin or are dehydrated, you’re at an ever larger risk of developing them. And once you have these scars, it’s tough, but not impossible, to reduce them.

I have come to the conclusion that stretch marks are caused by some kind of hormone activity and not solely through rapid weight gain and loss. You don't have to be pregnant or fat in order to get these hateful scars. As a matter of fact, it is a very dry to common skin condition, but most people who have them are embarrassed by them and hide them. The stretch marks that are directly related hormone activity mostly happen during pregnancy and the general growth for adolescent boys and girls.

Most people think that stretch marks are completely incurable. To be sure, they are very difficult to get rid of, but they don’t have to be. I am not one of those people who will write about stretch marks, having never had them. For the longest time I could not do anything about them other than putting lotions on them and pray that they would disappear.

Believe it or not, what you put into your body directly relates to what your body displays to the world. For example, if you eat a lot of fatty foods, you will develop poor skin conditions like acne. I’m not saying that you have to eat raw veggies all day to avoid stretch marks but eating junk food is not going to help.

We all know that certain vitamins are great for your skin such as vitamin E; however it never seems to occur to most people that you can get it from food and not just lotions and creams. I can’t even try to imagine why that is. It’s as if we think skin + vitamins = cream/lotions. What you should be thinking is vitamins + skin = nutrition/foods etc.