When treatment is neglected pregnancy, body building, fast weight gain and even fast growth become a common problem that generates stretch marks.

Stretch marks are generated by anomalous hormone activity. You don't need to be pregnant or be overweight to get them. As a matter of fact, it is a very common skin condition, but most people who have them are ashamed and try to keep them to themselves.

Stretch Mark Related Causes:

* Pregnancy

* Sudden growth spurts

* Rapid weight fluctuations

* Long term deficiency of certain nutrients

* Sudden change in physical or environmental conditions

* Certain medication can also cause stretch marks, especially steroids related medications.

The real problem is that the body generates the wrong information regarding skin development. This leads skin to produce insufficient quantities of collagen and elastin, which conform the skin's connective tissue. When connective tissues are not resistant enough to endure over-stretching they break apart and stretch marks are formed.

Although in many cases they seem to simply emerge overnight this isn't entirely true. They start from deep skin layers and slowly develop to the skin's surface.

Stretch marks happen to men and women, young and old, fat and thin. In many cases they don't cause harm or irritate the skin so a lot of people don't even acknowledge them until they are in plain sight.

In the first stage of development they are a pinkish or pale red color. The pinkish coloring is caused by micro blood vessels breaking open and bleeding. These scars usually change to a pale silvery white which is the final step of their developement.

Most people think that stretch marks are not treatable because they are so difficult to erase. As a matter of fact, most specialists will even say: just live with them, they are not curable. But why would they say something like that if there is a way to treat them? Maybe they just don't care enough or maybe in a doctor's point of view stretch marks are not a real problem because they don't really cause any real physical discomfort

Stretch marks are partial thickness 'tears' within the skin, meaning that they are essentially subdural scars. The best stretch mark product isn't one rich in elastin and collagen, but one that stimulates the generation of collagen, elastin and the water retaining capacity of healthy skin. Collagen is the building block of skin, and elastin is the protein which confers skin its elasticity. By elevating the levels of these proteins in your skin, from the inside out , you can strenghten the epidermal layer.