Skin, before sun damage and the inflammation life causes, is made of 80% collagen and 4% elastin fiber mesh network. Elastin, a fishnet-like structure, is the protein in the skin which gives skin its flexibility and allows it to stretch and recoil back to its original position. People associate stretch marks with weight gain or pregnancy and assume that stretch marks are caused by skin stretching out to fit around this new, larger body.

Why Do We Get Stretch Marks?

Stretch marks are the result of the skin’s rapid stretching, associated with such rapid growth and muscle (common in puberty, adolescence and weight building) and/or weight gain (i.e. body fat storage and pregnancy) that the skin’s elasticity is overwhelmed. The cause of this stretch mark formation is hormones. The glucocorticoid hormones, the primary culprit being cortisol produced in the adrenal glands, which sit atop the kidneys, are overproduced in response to the body interpreting rapid growth/muscle/weight gain/ pregnancy as too much stress to handle, especially heaped upon daily stress. This sets up a cascade of events resulting in diverting energy and nutritional and blood resources away from the skin and in particular its fibroblasts, which form collagen and elastin fibers necessary to keep rapidly growing skin normal and taut, in favor of concentrating the body’s available resources to support and maintain the tissues and organs which are stressed and higher priority. This creates a lack of raw materials that would normally construct the stretching skin- so dermal and epidermal tearing occurs and appears.

Elevated levels of cortisol cause weight gain. When the body experiences stress, it reacts by releasing more cortisol and goes into a "survival mode" in order to cope with the stress, initiating fat storage more easily and faster, for the fat to serve as a reserve source of energy to keep the results of stress from depleting all the body’s energy stores. This alone can lead to an extreme amount of weight gain in a short amount of time, exacerbating the stretching of your dermis in particular, creating stretch marks. Improper nutrition, illness, pollution, lack of psychological coping mechanisms and methods to release stress such as exercise, a sense of humor, forgiveness, etc., excessive stimulant intake and smoking are additional causes of body stress. Gaining and losing weight-everything- affects the hormones in our body and thus the hormone concentration and its effects in our skin.

Stretch marks are also a form of scarring of the skin, which is associated with an off-color hue. When the skin is fractured and elastin fibers are damaged it causes the “look of a scar”. As the dermis is stretched, the outer layer of skin, known as the epidermis, also stretches, thinning it and making it translucent enough that you can see the reddish purple dermis. As the skin heals these marks, scar formation occurs, causing the stretch mark. Over time the marks fade to a silvery white color that is a few shades lighter, or darker in pigmented skin, than your natural skin tone. The color change occurs because during the stretching, there is loss of skin pigment-producing cells, the melanocytes, at the junction of the epidemis and the dermis.

With the Skin Fitness Plus stretch mark therapy, over as quick a time as possible for the body, stretch marks gradually diminish and in most cases disappear.

Stretch marks are prevalent during pregnancy-70% of all pregnant women, weightlifting and adolescent growth spurts. The stretch marks that appear during the adolescent years in particular, fade the most quickly over time and either disappear completely or are much less noticeable than stretch marks formed later in life.

Stretch Marks on Men

We tend to think of stretch marks as something that affects women more that men - but this is not correct. Stretch marks on men are just as common as they are on women and they are just as likely to form stretch marks as women. Skin is skin- although men have more and thicker collagen and elastin than women, due to the increased amount of testosterone, so it is a bit harder to form stretch marks in men. Men's stretch marks also tend to be in locations covered by hair so are less obvious.

The only real difference is how men and women develop the stretch marks. While men and women both weight lift, it is more common for men to develop stretch marks, because they gain more muscle mass more quickly. Weightlifters are prone to stretch marks appearing on their upper arms and shoulder areas when large amount of muscle are built up quickly. Body builders are prone to more stretch mark production if they are taking any form of steroid that makes their muscles build at a rapid rate.

As BOTH men and women experience resulting changes in their hormones, stretch marks can appear.

Pregnancy and Stretch Marks

Pregnant women get stretch marks most often during the late stages of their pregnancy when the baby, their weight or the amount of amniotic fluid is growing quickly or from rapid fluid retention from toxemia of pregnancy. Pregnancy requires a much enhanced amount of nutrition with vitamins and minerals needed for the Mother and if the Mother’s body does not have enough, the baby gets what is available preferentially and the skin of the Mother is the first place that the body diminishes its supply of nutrition resulting in stretch marks, again due to cortisol effect. Over 75% of pregnant women get stretch marks on their abdomens. Other common places where stretch marks occur are the breasts, thighs and buttocks. That is why the Mother’s weight gain should virtually always be controlled at no more than 25 pounds and diet, exercise and nutritional supplementation is imperative. An ounce of prevention…

At first stretch marks are reddish or brownish in color from the growth of tiny blood vessels (color depends on skin tone) trying to bring in the raw materials to repair the skin damage. Gradually, over varying amounts of time, these lines become shiny and pearl white (or pigmented) and narrower, but they do not entirely vanish. A more intensive approach is required to reduce the appearance of the marks.

THE SKIN FITNESS PLUS PARADIGM OF TREATMENT – Correct skin stimulation-internally and externally, products, peels and synergistic technology - done on your time and budget frame, will dramatically minimize if not completely remove the stretch marks over time.

• CORRECT PRODUCTS,INTERNAL and EXTERNAL
• PEELS
• THERMAGE PROCEDURE
• VASCULAR AND SMOOTHBEAM LASERS

go to top of page