What are Stretch Marks or Striae?
Stretch marks are major skin problems for which no definitive treatment has yet been discovered. These cracks have decrease people`s self-confidence. The appearance of these cracks is initially pink and purple and then turns white. They can often be seen on the arms, abdomen, buttocks, thighs, etc., but can also be seen on other parts of the body.
The main cause of stretch marks is stretching of the skin and as a result the breakdown of collagen and elastin in that area, which as a result appears in the form of red and then white skin cracks.
Causes of stretch marks (Striae)
- The main cause of stretch marks that occur in many men and women is obesity and thinness. There are very few people who have very elastic skin, otherwise they often have a lot or few stretch marks.
- Cushing and Ehler Danlos syndrome are two syndromes that play a significant role in causing stretch marks.
To see more information about this syndrome, you can read the following article.
- Another cause of skin cracks is childbirth. Pregnancy can cause stretch marks due to stretch marks on the skin. Even if you try to prevent striae by using special creams, this method still does not work for many women.
- After puberty, when the body suddenly change and grows, we see the formation of skin cracks in some areas of the body.
- People who work out can cause stretch marks if they experience a sudden increase in volume, which is why these cracks and stretch marks are so common in bodybuilders.
- Prolonged use of cortisone pills can cause striae due to interference with collagen production.
- We cannot say that heredity plays a big role, but if the skin is highly elastic inherently, it will not crack no matter how much it is stretched.
How to prevent stretch marks (striae)
As we mentioned before one of stretch marks reasons is sudden weight loss, it is better to try to control weight to prevent this problem. If you have a lot of weight and you want to lose weight, it is better to see a doctor and lose weight using a basic diet.
The use of moisturizing and anti-striae creams can be somewhat effective, but we cannot say that it has a great effect certainly. Using corticosteroids and cortisone can cause stretch marks, so these medications can be stopped.
Stretch marks treatments (striae)
The treatments for stretch marks are very wide and we will try to describe most of them in this article.
- The easiest way is to use creams, but because these cracks occur in the inner skin layers, the use of creams usually does not have much effect, because they cannot penetrate into the deeper layers of the skin.
- Carboxytherapy is a method used to treat skin stretch marks. During this procedure, CO2 gas is injected into the skin to increase the amount of oxygen in the skin, so that the skin begins to repair itself. In fact, in this method, the skin is somehow deceived, the skin feels lack of oxygen during carboxytherapy due to the increase of this gas, to compensate for the lack of oxygen in the tissue, it increases the blood supply to that area. This increases the skin restorative activity in that area.
- When injecting carbon dioxide, the specialist should also apply and adjust the gas to the body temperature and increase or decrease the intensity of the injection according to the desired area. The effects of carboxytherapy are quite evident after several sessions. This method will make the stretch marks lighter.
- Mesotherapy is one of the most effective methods for treating stretch marks, which can directly inject essential needs of skin to repair stretch marks. The skin needs mesotherapy to nourish and rejuvenate itself. After mesotherapy, the skin uses the substances to regenerate itself and begins to repair itself. We cannot say that this method certainly improves the high level of skin cracks, but it works as an excellent combined treatment method.
- Microneedling is another miracle for the skin, in which very small needles that do not damage the epidermal layers of the skin, enter the skin and create wounds deep in the skin, the skin to repair these wounds has to produce growth factors, the skin heals the striae to heal the wounds, so the result is the spontaneously heals.
- Fractional CO2 laser is one of the miraculous methods in the field of beauty and skin rejuvenation. For example, it works wonderfully in treating stretch marks. This treatment creates thousands of lasers waves, destroys the dermis and epidermis and greatly enhances the collagen production of the skin. This method is extremely effective and excellent, and today it is used to treat stretch marks, rejuvenation, sutures and acne.
- In some cases, of course, it can be said that in rare cases, if it is possible to remove the skin, the doctor should remove the part that has the most cracks with surgery and suture the remaining parts.
