What are stretch marks and how to remove them permanently?

Striae distensae, or as they are more commonly known, stretch marks (many spell it as strech marks or even streach marks), are an everyday skin dermatosis, which can cause considerable distress to those affected by them. They can occur during pregnancy or after a major weight loss. These linear skin scars are associated with epidermal atrophy, affecting skin (causing wrinkles), which has been constantly and progressively stretched.

They can occur at anytime when the connective tissue becomes stressed, and may show up on breasts and stomach in pregnant women, the shoulders of body builders and weight lifters, at the time of puberty when adolescents are undergoing growth surges, and in those who are overweight.

Most sufferers seek a skin care cure in order to regain self-confidence, and there are numerous methods to prevent, and get rid of stretch marks including microdermabrasion, creams, oils, plastic and laser surgery. Many find that using an exfoliating tool, before applying creams, aids skin regeneration by removing the dead skin cells.

Recently there has been a new development in laser treatment of stretch marks. It is called Fractional Laser. This laser treatment stimulates the healing processes or your skin, rather than just reducing the redness, as in many previous types of laser treatment.

It works by making thousand of tiny deep columns in your skin, and will treat old, and new stretch marks, without causing damage to the surrounding skin. Consequently this reduces the healing time and encourages your skin to produce new skin collagen. As this method works on the middle lays of the skin, where the actual damage is, the scars fill in and look like normal skin.

Plastic surgery is extremely expensive and is usually the most painful method, but in some circumstances it is the best way. If you have a buttock or breast lift or even a tummy tuck, the portion of damaged skin can be removed at the same time.

If you do not fancy the idea of surgery or find it to pricey, you may consider other remedies. However it is also ways good to bear in mind that nutrition plays a valuable role in the healing of stretch marks, and may be a determining factor in whether they form in the first place. Eating a nutritious diet, and making sure you have sufficient exercise is the healthiest way to improve stretch marks.

If you are pregnant, prevention is always the best route to go, keep your skin moisturised with olive oil, shea butter, cocoa butter, or any of the excellent creams on the market, take moderate exercise, eat a sensible diet so that you do not put on excess weight, drink sufficient water (at least eight glasses a day), and you should not experience too many problems with stretch marks.