Age and Your Skin - Stretch Marks Treatment

As a small child grows, his weight and height increases; so the skin has to stretch to accommodate this gradual, albeit massive increase in mass. At times, especially when there is a spurt in the growth, the growth of the skin fails to cope up with the growth of the body; the stretch then forces the elastic fibres in the skin to rupture, resulting in stretch marks or striae. These marks can develop at any time of life, but there are two occasions when they are particularly likely to develop:

• During the adolescent growth spurt, about half of all children develop stretch marks. Marks usually show up in parts of the body where the elastic fibres of the skin are put under the greatest stress. Varying in length, they are pink to start with and invariably fade to white scars as years go by; they finally become wrinkled and papery and are then barely perceptible. Adolescent boys usually develop striae on their backs, buttocks and abdomen, while girls develop the marks on their breasts as well.
• Women also develop stretch marks 'on the tummy and breasts during pregnancy.

Though there is no certain way to prevent stretch marks from developing, scores of preparations are available in the market, all claiming to do just this; many of these contain exotic additives like collagen, vitaminA and allantoin. These creams are as good as, or as bad as plain moisturising creams in preventing stretch marks and nothing better. Gentle exercising of the abdominal muscles is suggested as a way to prevent stretch marks during pregnancy. Stretch marks on the breasts can be minimum by wearing a good maternity bra.

Once the marks have developed, the most effective way to deal with them is by using a camouflage cream. Most times, however, this is not required because these marks are on parts of the body which are generally covered. Many patients want to know about the efficacy of surgery. Surgery is definitely not advised, because the scars of surgery may eventually be more noticeable. Also although they rarely disappear entirely, stretch marks usually fade as years go by. So it is really best to leave stretch marks alone and allow time to be the true healer. Skin changes with age; wrinkles: As we.grow older, several changes become apparent on the skin:

• There is a patchy increase in the amount of pigment in the skin; so eventually the skin appears blotchy.
• Dead cells collect on the skin -this results in dryness and roughness of the skin.
• The natural oil production is reduced adding to the dryness of the skin.
• The connective tissue beneath the skin loses its natural elasticity, because the elastic fibres break down.

All these changes combined with the effects of the different environmental factors like the sun, winds, and chemicals produce wrinkling of the skin. Smoking has often been mentioned as a reason for the early development of wrinkles. This is probably because smokers tend to screw up their eyes against smoke - the wrinkles then develop along these lines.

Although it is not possible to totally prevent the development of wrinkles, it is possible to slow down the process:

• The sun is a giant wrinkling machine - so the simplest and the most ef-fective way would be to keep out of the sun and to use sunscreens if it is necessary to go out in the sun.
• Using a good moisturising cream regularly reduces the dryness of the skin. For this you can use any moisturising cream - the fancy, expensive nourishing creams with exotic contents are actually no better than the ordinary creams. Though; massaging the skin with creams is a frequently recommended advice, this suggestion is absolutely empirical. As a matter of fact, some dennatologists even believe that massaging may actually hasten the appearance of wrinkles.
• Exercise is also often promoted as an effective way to stay young. Complex routines are designed to strengthen the facial muscles - but again there is no evidence that these exercises retard the development of wrinkles.

There are countless remedies available for wrinkles - most of them are actually useless. The popular anti-wrinkle creams are nothing but masking creams, they just camouflage wrinkles. Vitamin E enriched creams have been used extensively with doubtful effect. Special electric treatments and laser therapies are of. fered by beauty houses at exorbitant rates, though there seems to be little benefit from these and they may actually even harm the skin. Special diets and anti-wrinkle pills are also a waste of money. Vitamin supplements also do not help wrinkles. A simple and cheap way is to cleverly use make-up to camouflage the wrinkle lines-and this is what is most frequently used.

Surgery is the only definitely effective way of getting rid of wrinkles - there are several methods available but the best results are obtained 'with a face lift.

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