The skin is the body’s largest organ and has the remarkable ability to expand and contract as needed.
The skin is strong and elastic, but its supporting tissues can be damaged if they stretch too far or too quickly.
This rapid expanding of the skin can lead to stretch marks. Up to 90 percent of women get stretch marks during pregnancy. However, stretch marks can affect people of nearly all ages and skin types.
They often occur during periods of growth and body changes, such as significant weight gain, puberty, and extreme muscle building.
What are stretch marks?
Stretch marks are lines or bands caused by stretching of the skin’s connective tissue.
When the middle layer of skin stretches too quickly, some of its collagen fibers can break.
This allows underlying blood vessels to show through, leaving behind the telltale red or purplish marks.
Over time, they fade to a white or silver color as blood vessels heal. Once they appear, the marks do not usually go away fully.
Stretch marks are not physically painful, but they can affect a person’s confidence and self-esteem. They can be disfiguring in severe cases.
Experts have tried for years to find an effective treatment for these marks.
Unfortunately, no treatment has been shown to erase them fully. New ways of treating stretch marks are emerging, however, and some of them show promise.
