Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Anti Stretch Mark Cream Myths

If you have stretch marks you know how unsightly and embarrassing they can be. If you had a baby, you might not feel like you will ever be comfortable in a swim suit again. If you lost or gained a significant amount of weight, your body is different and it may now have some stretch marks on it.

This can be especially discouraging if they appeared as you sought to better yourself by losing weight. However, before you run out to purchase some stretch mark removal or anti stretch mark cream, you need to learn about what causes stretch marks and what you can really do about them.

Causes For Stretch Marks


Stretch marks are brought on by changes in your body, usually in the form of rapid weight gain or rapid weight loss. They can also be brought on in hormonal issues, like with puberty. By the time that you can physically see a stretch mark, the damage has already occurred: no anti stretch mark cream can cure you from stretch marks. What happens is that the collagen deep beneath your skin tears when there is excess stress placed on it.



This can happen if you gain or lose weight and is most common during pregnancy. The collagen works as a pad or pillow to keep the epidermis, or skin, taut and tight. When the cushion beneath it becomes a cavern, the skin reacts accordingly and forms a stretch mark. By the time that you can see the stretch mark, it is like a scar on your body, which is why anti stretch mark cream will not help it.

What You Can Do On Stretch Mark


Not all anti stretch mark cream is a waste of money. Some anti stretch mark cream works to reduce the appearance of the scar. Other anti stretch mark creams work to reduce the purple or red color of the stretch mark to make it less noticeable. However, no anti stretch mark cream can completely remove a stretch mark. No cream can build back collagen. The only way to treat stretch marks in a complete manner is through laser treatments. These are expensive and often times painful, but the results are unarguable.

Many people swear by anti stretch mark cream to help prevent the formation of stretch marks in the first place. There are special pregnancy stretch mark cream brands out there to help women who are pregnant keep supple and stretchable skin to avoid stretch marks. These same anti stretch mark creams can be used outside of pregnancy as well. However, even if you use these creams, if you are hereditarily susceptible to stretch marks, you may never be able to avoid them.


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Pregnancy And Stretch Marks

Finding out you are pregnant brings a tidal wave of emotions. You are excited and happy, but at the same time nervous about your body changing. This is completely normal. One thing that women immediately start thinking about when they find out they are pregnant is stretch marks. Stretch marks can be ugly and unappealing, and if this is your first baby you might be wondering what, exactly, these stretch marks are going to do to your body.


Be Prepared


One of the best ways to keep feeling good about your body through these rough changes is to be prepared and know what is going to happen. Stretch marks are almost inevitable during pregnancy. You can buy normal stretch mark removal or the best stretch mark cream on the market and still end up with stretch marks. Many dermatologists speculate that getting stretch marks is largely hereditary. Others say that even the best stretch mark cream is worthless. Stretch marks form on the inside of your skin and work their way out, so some believe that the best stretch mark cream cannot penetrate your epidermis to get deep enough to even matter.

However, part of being prepared for your changing body is to be ready for whatever it throws your way. There is no reason to sit idly by and let your skin tear. Stretch marks can be painful, and using an anti stretch mark cream is a good idea. Even if the best stretch mark cream out there cannot guarantee that it will work, it is better than doing nothing. Plus, most of the best stretch mark creams are highly moisturizing. This can be a great relief to a dry and itchy bulging belly!



After The Baby



After you have your baby, you might not even recognize your own body. Using the best stretch mark cream might have helped keep your stretch marks to a minimal, but you are still going to be stretch out and sag in places you never thought possible. Do not worry. The stretch marks will eventually fade, with time. Your skin will regain its tautness and bounce back to where it once was. With proper diet and exercise you can have the same body you had before you even thought about having children.

With determination and dedication, you can feel good about yourself knowing that you are the best you can be. And even if the best stretch mark cream does nothing for you and you have roadmap of scars on your belly…remember that roadmap led you to your precious little baby.


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Monday, April 27, 2009

Stretch Mark Information

If you are pregnant you are probably worried about stretch marks. Almost everyone gets them during pregnancy, and you have probably heard conflicting information about them.

You probably want to run out and buy the most expensive stretch mark cream out there and the best stretch mark cream to keep the stretch marks at bay. However, it is important that you understand basic stretch mark information before spending your money on stretch mark cream or stretch mark removal that just might not work.

Where Stretch Marks Come From


Contrary to popular belief, stretch marks do not just appear on pregnant women. While pregnancy can, and often does, lead to stretch marks, rapid weight gain or rapid weight loss, puberty or any other subsequent changes in your body shape, bodybuilding or building muscle, and anything at all that changes the shape of your body or the proportions of your body can cause stretch marks.



But where do they come from? Many people think that putting stretch mark cream on your body can prevent stretch marks from appearing. But that is not the case. Stretch marks are a type of scar that forms beneath the skin. When your body shape changes and your skin is stretched, the deep layers of the skin can suffer damage. These deep layers of skin are formed by collagen and other tissue and when collagen tears, it causes a stretch mark.

But why can you see the tear on the surface of the skin? You can see the tear in the form of a stretch mark because this cushion of collagen is what supports the skin. When it is not there, you can see the visible lacking of it on the surface of the skin. While some stretch marks are purple or pink, some are flesh colored and can barely be seen at all.

What You Can Do About It


Stretch mark cream is basically a waste of money, according to many doctors and dermatologists. Why? Stretch mark cream cannot reach below the surface of the skin to heal the broken collagen underneath. Stretch mark cream can, at best, keep skin moist and make it easier to stretch. Little research supports the use of stretch mark cream during pregnancy to reduce stretch marks.

And because stretch marks come from the inside out, using stretch mark cream after stretch marks have already appeared is all but pointless. The only real treatment for stretch marks is not stretch mark cream but laser removal of stretch marks. Unfortunately, however, the best time to have stretch marks treated is when they are still purple and fresh. The laser treatments have not been approved for breastfeeding mothers, and by the time many children wean the stretch marks have already faded.


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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Stretch Mark Removal Treatment: Which Treatment Is Right For You?

Weight gains can have a lot of terrible effects on the body. Not only will weight gain expose you to a lot of medical risk, it can also destroy your perfect skin. If you have been fighting weight problems for sometime and your weight sometime, you probably have some ugly stretch marks on your skin.

Although stretch marks do not warrant a medical emergency, it can make you feel self conscious especially when you go for a swim on the beach. Wearing a swimsuit will reveal those ugly marks. Fortunately, you do not have to suffer through all the social pains and discomforts of displaying those ugly marks in public. There are a number of stretch mark removal treatment procedures that can help you get rid of those ugly marks. With the right stretch mark removal treatment, your skin will look almost as good as it used to be before you had those ugly marks.

Finding The Right Stretch Mark Removal Treatment


Finding the right stretch mark removal treatment can be a little tricky especially if you budget is limited. If you want completely and permanent stretch mark removal, you might as well forget those over the counter stretch mark creams and go for clinic treatments. For instance, those state of the art tummy tuck treatments can remove your stretch marks permanently but those treatments can cost you a lot of money too.



The worst part of it is that tummy tucks fall under the category of cosmetic treatment so most health insurance companies do not pay for this type of treatment. Since the average cost of tummy tuck treatment around the country is about two months pay for an average office worker, this type of stretch mark removal treatment may be a little bit off the mark for you.

If tummy tucks are way over your budget range, your next option would be laser treatment. Laser stretch mark removal treatment can diminish the severity of the marks but it will not completely remove them. However, the good news is that most of this laser stretch mark removal treatment is very effective that your stretch marks will be hardly noticeable.

Moreover, this type of treatment is more or less permanent so you do not go back the clinic every now and then to have your stretch marks treated. On the other hand, blue light therapy which is closely associated with tattoo removal treatment is now being used by many surgeons and dermatologists to for stretch mark removal treatments. Like the laser treatment, the blue light therapy cannot completely remove the stretch marks but it can make them almost unnoticeable.


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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Know About Permanent Stretch Mark Removal

Getting pregnant and having a baby takes its tool on the body. Stretch marks often appear on the skin especially around the tummy area of the woman after she gave birth. Although some of these stretch marks usually go away naturally during the first six months after giving birth, some of these marks can be quite stubborn.

Fortunately there are ways to deal will stubborn stretch marks. There are plenty of permanent stretch mark removal options to available to all women around the country. Some of these permanent stretch mark removal options are costly and some of these are quit affordable.


Surgical Stretch Mark Removal


When it comes to permanent stretch mark removal, the surgical stretch mark removal treatment is the best there is. Commonly known as tummy tuck, this procedure often removes the stretch marks completely and permanently. However, this type of permanent stretch mark removal treatment can be invasive and costly. It is invasive in the sense that the surgeon will remove the excess skin and sew the remaining skin together to create a tighter fitting skin.




The procedure also leaves a mark on the skin. In most cases, the scars from the incision will be noticeable for months but they usually go away within the first year after you had this type of permanent stretch mark removal procedure. On the other hand, the cost of this procedure can range around $4,000.00 to $7,500.00 depending on the location and the reputation of the surgeon. Some well know surgeons, especially those that are practicing in big cities charge even higher fees so you can expect to spend a lot of money for this type of permanent stretch mark removal.


Laser Surgery


Over the years, laser surgery has become very popular permanent stretch mark removal treatment. Many people, especially women undergo this type of treatment everyday. The good thing about laser treatment is that it is a cheaper compared to surgical stretch mark removal but the downside is that laser treatment is not as effective as surgical stretch mark removal.

According t experts, laser treatment is only good for colored stretch marks. This means that if you want the full benefit of this type of permanent stretch mark removal procedure, you should get this type of treatment while your stretch marks are still new. Once your stretch marks start to fade and turn white, laser treatment may not be able to do much for you.


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Sunday, April 19, 2009

The Best Stretch Mark Removal Treatment For Your Skin

Stretch marks can be very ugly. If you are one of those women who are ashamed to go to the beach or the public pool and wear swimsuits because you have some ugly stretch marks on your thighs, it is time for you to stop feeling miserable. Find the best stretch mark removal treatment and those ugly marks removed for good. With the best stretch mark removal treatment, you will look and feel as good as new in just a few days.

Dealing With Stretch Marks


Before you get all worked up with the possibility of having skin that is totally devoid of stretch marks, let us one thing straight. There is still no technology or treatment that can totally remove any traces of stretch marks on the skin. Even the best stretch mark removal treatment could not erase all those red and white marks. What the best stretch mark removal treatment can do is to diminish the size of the stretch marks that they become hardly noticeable.

Now, before you have second thoughts about spending money on the best stretch mark removal treatment available, you have to understand that all types of treatments have their downsides and upsides. If you really want to look good in a two piece swimsuit, you just have to have faith in the treatment. Yes, it is true that your skin will never look the same as it used to before you got stretch marks but the good news is that it will look a lot better than it is now.



On the other hand, the so called permanent stretch mark removal treatment may not be that permanent. Why? People do not get stretch marks at one point only. If you are yo-yo dieting you tend to gain and loss weight every now and now. Every time you gain weight your skin stretches out and every time you lose weight, your skin slackens and stretch marks appear. This means that the areas of your body that already have already undergone the best stretch mark removal treatment may get aggravated and your old stretch marks will look bigger than they used to.

When this happens, you just have to go through the treatment process again. Since the best stretch mark removal treatment cost a lot of money, you need to know how to prevent stretch marks from evading your skin. The most effective way to prevent stretch marks is to watch your weight. When pregnant, you need to use stretch marks prevention lotion to prevent those ugly marks from appearing after you give birth to your baby.


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Sunday, April 12, 2009

Stretch Mark Removal Surgery May Be The Last Resort

Stretch marks can plague men and women of all ages and ethnicities. They are not specific to just pregnant women. There are many stretch mark removal creams and lotions that people use to get rid off the side effects of weight gain or loss, weight lifting or just puberty.

If all these topical applications fail, some people are resorting to stretch mark removal surgery which has to be a well thought out decision. As with any other surgery there are risks of complications so many doctors recommend that it may not be worth the risk to go through for cosmetic reasons alone. If someone is obese and is considering a tummy tuck or abdominoplasty, then stretch mark removal can be a pleasant side effect. While they are paying for (both financially and with physical pain) for the surgery, they can get rid of the stretch marks. but doing so just for aesthetic reasons may not be a safe bet.

The best stretch mark removal option is still the popular creams. The worst that can happen with those is a waste of money, which also might not hold true if you have a product that offers a 30-day money back guarantee. However, side effect s are rare with such topical creams and lotions.

A better option than outright surgery is stretch mark removal laser surgery. While it also has the surgical connotations, the procedure is much simpler and adverse side effects less common. With the laser, a beam of light is guided over the area where you have those pinkish, purplish stretch marks and slowly layers of skin that may be difficult to see with the naked eye are peeled off. As the skin is gradually removed, so are the stretch marks.

However this form of stretch mark removal surgery may take several sessions and may be quite expensive depending on the severity of the stretch marks. Some marks are old and need more sessions to be eradicated. Others are fresh and recent that can be removed easily. As the skin is healing, a fresh layer of skin covers the area where the laser removed the stretch marks.

Cost of Stretch Mark Removal Surgery


It is difficult to give a ball park estimate as to the cost or time needed for such a procedure. It depends on the severity of the stretch marks, your age, health and convenience. Some doctors schedule multiple sessions close to one another, others prefer an extended healing time. Some charge a flat fee for the stretch mark removal laser surgery but mostly charge per session and thereby making the bottom line dependant on the number of sessions you will need to have.
Scarring and abrasions can also result from this relatively simpler form of stretch mark removal surgery but the instances of major issues are rare.

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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

How To Choose The Best Stretch Mark Removal Cream

There are so many choices in stretch mark removal creams that it is often hard to make a wise decision. Your mother might recommend one, your doctor the other and your girlfriend yet another one. The important thing for you to do is to make a calculated decision and choose the stretch mark removal cream that is best suited for you.

You might have to try a few different brands before you actually find one that works with your skin type. But you might also luck out by hitting the jackpot the first time around. A good stretch mark removal cream will contain collage and elastin so that you can get back the elements in your skin that help bind the tissue together and help make it stretch. Soy protein is another great ingredient to have in a stretch mark removal cream and so are amino acids. The elastic fibers that help in binding the skin tear down if there is stress on them such as weight gain or loss and hence they break down.

No Overnight Miracles

Having a baby or losing weight or building muscle do not happen overnight and neither will your stretch mark removal cream results. The important thing is to be consistent and not expect overnight miracles cures either. Look for a cream that is non greasy and doesn’t have any fragrance so that you can apply it more frequently under your clothes and no one will be the wiser.

Another thing to look for when ordering a stretch mark removal cream is that the product should have a risk-free guarantee. Great companies stand behind their products and offer refunds if you are not satisfied with the product. This way you can try a couple of stretch mark removal creams without breaking the bank. But do make sure to read all the fine print and pay for shipping and handling in most cases.

If you have tried various stretch mark removal creams and have not seen any major improvements, then you might want to consider stretch mark removal surgery. This however should be the last resort after you have tried over the counter and prescription products. Stretch mark removal surgery is no joke and like any surgery has its risks and benefits.

Most cases do well with stretch mark removal creams and people often fall in love with a product that they swear by it for future pregnancies and gift it at baby showers too.

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Saturday, April 4, 2009

Simple ways to remove stretch marks

There are many ways you could have got stretch marks and removing them may have become a priority for as summer time approaches. Whether you gained or lost a significant amount of weight, had a baby - or multiples- started a new weight lifting regimen or just went through puberty, stretch mark removal is not only possible, it can also be easy.

For most people, stretch mark removal is all about using the right cream with patience and diligence. If a manufacturer advertises miraculous overnight results, do not be tempted to believe him. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. While stretch mark removal creams do work, they usually take a few weeks before results start showing.

Also, the kind of cream that may work for you is not directly proportional to the price you pay. Start with the popular drug store brands. You never know, you might see results with just cents a day. If that does not work, you may want to ask your doctor or dermatologist for a brand name or prescription cream for stretch mark removal.

The skin is primarily made up of collagen and elastin. Collagen helps bind your skin tissue together and elastin helps in the flexibility or elasticity of the skin. Try to look for a stretch mark removal cream that includes soy protein as well as amino acids to help the skin heal from current stretch marks as well as prevent new ones from forming.

Prevention Is Better Than Cure


Some doctors recommend using stretch mark removal cream during the pregnancy not just after you have had the baby. However, it is critical to use a stretch mark removal cream that is safe for pregnant and nursing mothers so make sure you get that checked by your obstetrician or primary care physician first.

Most products for stretch marks are not just limited to pregnant women. Men who are avid body builders or teenage boys and girls who may be going through a growth spurt may also have to battle with stretch marks. Young and old, men and women of all ethnicities and demographics grapple with stretch marks too. It is not the end of the world by any standard.

The key is not to let it bother you to the degree of hurting your self esteem. It is something natural and millions of people have treated it or come to terms with it. Most people have had success with stretch mark removal and you can too.

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Thursday, April 2, 2009

The side effects of pregnancy: Stretch Marks

Aah, the perks of pregnancy….eating more ice cream than you ever would, getting your husband or significant other to lift the groceries or clean the bath tub and buying the cutest little layette. However, stretch marks are one of the ugly side effects of most pregnancies and something most women wish they did not have to contend with.

Stretch marks are not a serious medical condition or something that you need to lose sleep over. For centuries, women have had to deal with stretch marks as the side effect of carrying a new life in their belly for nine months.

As the baby grows and needs more room to wiggle around, the outer lining of a woman's uterus also expands and the skin which is visible starts expanding correspondingly. This extreme stretch leaves marks that can be purplish or pinkish or could be brownish in color due to different skin pigmentations.

Women need not worry about the stretch marks as irreversible as they may have had to accept them centuries ago. They may have had to live with it for life. However, in this day and age there are several options that one can choose from to get rid of these marks.

There are several options for stretch mark removal. From cocoa butter creams and lotions to home remedies and even surgery, some women do go the extra mile. if they can afford it and if their profession calls for it (such as actresses and models) or even if someone just wants to look good in a bathing suit in the summer, stretch marks are no fun.

The Bright Side Of Stretch Marks

Of course, unlike varicose veins and wrinkles, you do have a plus side to stretch marks. In most cases, you do get to give birth to a miracle, a bundle of joy that you have nurtured in your belly for so many months. Some women are lucky enough never to have stretch marks but like nausea and swollen feet, they usually are part and parcel of the game. Some mothers have stretch marks that vanish on their own.

Those too are not very common, but still heard of. Just like each pregnancy is different, your experience with the marks can be different too. You might have had many stretch marks in your first pregnancy but not after that. Similarly, your mother may have had a squeaky clean belly during her pregnancies but you may have not inherited that particular gene!

So do try the various options out there, but remember that even if they do not completely go away, think of your stretch marks as your medal of honor for bringing a new life into this world.

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