Stretch Marks - What causes stretch marks?

How do stretch marks occur?

There are without a doubt a lot of reasons for the appearance of stretch marks, but generally speaking, it is believed that stretch marks are caused by a breakdown of the skins elasticity, making it "crack", leaving scars known as stretch marks.

Stretch marks are often linked directly to pregnancy, and though it may be a bi product of being pregnant, this certainly doesn’t have to be the cause. In fact, I had stretch marks for well over 10 years, and I’m male - so obviously, in my case at least, it’s not due to any pregnancy.

Here are a list of the most common causes for stretch marks:

• Pregnancy
• Natural growth for adolescent boys and girls
• Rapid weight gain/loss
• Depression or extreme unhappiness (unhappy, stressed and depressed people are more likely to get stretch marks)
• Long term lacking of certain nutrients
• Sudden change in physical or environmental conditions.
• Certain medication (hormonal and steroids related)

Medical description:

The glucocorticoid hormones responsible for the development of stretch marks affect the epidermis by preventing the fibroblasts from forming collagen and elastin fibers, necessary to keep rapidly growing skin taut. This creates a lack of supportive material, as the skin is stretched and leads to dermal and epidermal tearing. If the epidermis and the dermis has been penetrated, laser will not remove the stretch marks.

Will they disappear by themselves?

The answer would be no, and yes. Some people report that their stretch marks disappeared by themselves, which is great. But as the saying goes, this is just the exception that proves the rule; they don’t.

However, most stretch marks fades over time, getting a more silver-appearance, making them harder to spot, but it all depends on the lighting conditions.

I will be frank with you, I have absolutely no clue as to why they disappear completely for some people, and not for others, but it shouldn’t matter, since we have ways of removing them and preventing them.