How can you avoid and alleviate stretch marks?

The first thing you must do about your stretch marks problem is to read and learn about the facts of this ailment. You will have a better chance of finding a solution that truly prevents or can effectively get rid of stretch marks if you understand what our biology dictates.

Stretch marks are evident signs that appear on the surface of the skin. They are scars left behind by skin repair within the dermis, below the surface of the skin (epidermis).

Unlike healthy functional skin, scars are quickly created by the body to reconnect collagen and elastin skin fibres that were torn because of an inability to withstand stretching.

More specifically, stretch marks are tears in a skin matrix that has been afflicted by atrophy. This is an ailment characterized by roughness, stiffness, weakness, a noticeable decrease in tissue size, thinning, diminished cellular proliferation and a reduced functionality.

Stretch marks are the signs of a local degeneration of both cells and the fibrous supportive tissues of the dermis and epidermis. The epidermis is thinner and the dermis-epidermis junction is reduced and eventually disappears. The survival of the epidermal cells that produce keratin (keratinocytes) is greatly reduced. Since this ailment is degenerative, even the best stretch mark cream can sometimes fail.

The scars you see on the surface are linear atrophic lesions that span from a few millimetres up to fifteen centimetres (0.6 inches) in size. The main alteration happens at the level of elastic fibres and collagen network.

The collagen network is moved in the direction of the mechanical constraint, disorganized and fragmented. Collagen fibres become shortened with a smaller average diameter from 100 nanometres (healthy) to 40 nanometres in the case of pregnancy stretch marks.

The fibres look like a collar of beads. At a cellular level, fibroblasts are deeply altered with atrophies and very reduced metabolic activity. Indeed synthesis of the fibre substratum is almost inexistent. The result is an elevated difficulty to get rid of stretch marks after they appeared.

Besides age, sex, corpulence and metabolic state, other factors trigger the appearance of stretch marks:

- Mechanical factors linked to skin's firmness: weight increase, pregnancy, growth. These enhance the displacement of the skin's fibrous network. They also produce inflammation that further destroys collagen as also do infections on the skin, through the release of enzymes in high quantities.

- Endocrine factors related to malfunction of the pituitary-hypothalamic system. As a result, disregulation of cortisol (hypercortisolemia) triggers the degradation of the collagen network.

- Clinical causes: local or systemic treatments with corticoids.

- Metabolic factors, like glycation or sugar metabolism alterations which impede the biosynthesis activity of fibroblasts and reduces skin's elasticity.