Why Do Stretch Marks Occur?

Stretch marks can quickly become the bane of your life – if you allow them to develop. In some cases, it’s not necessarily a matter of “allowing them to occur”, rather preventing them in the first place.

There are a number of ways you can prevent stretch marks from occurring, and in this article we will not only look at the causes of stretch marks, but also the numerous things you can do to prevent them.

How Stretch Marks Form

Stretch marks are essentially formed when the skin “stretches” for one reason or another, before it has enough time to grow properly. Just like any other part of the body, the skin is a living and breathing organ. It too requires the essentials of life to survive.

So, if you want a breakdown of how a stretch mark forms – take a look at this:

• Skin is forced to expand / lengthen for one reason or another
• Inadequate time is given for the skin to produce new cells
• The expansion puts pressure on the soft dermal layers
• Scars (known as stretch marks) form where the skin has stretched further than it has regrown

As you can see, it is clear that stretch marks are the function of the skin acting to protect the body. Skin must stretch when pressure is applied – however sometimes we apply this pressure much too fast for the bodies systems to keep up.

Who Gets Stretch Marks?

We’ve just looked at how and why stretch marks form – so who is most likely to suffer from them? The most obvious group of people to have an issue are those women who get pregnant. Whilst the child is growing in the womb, an incredible amount of expansion happens in the waist area – in a very short amount of time.

This causes the “pressure” we were talking about before, and hence it is the reason why most pregnant females have to battle with stretch marks after their pregnancy.

Other people to suffer are bodybuilders who put muscle on very quickly, and therefore force the skin to adapt to the bigger internal muscles. Additionally, people who gain weight quickly from overeating or a lack of exercise are at risk of stretch mark development.

Preventing Stretch Marks

Thankfully, despite these common groups all being at risk of stretch marks – there are a number of things you can do to help prevent them from occurring. However, if you already have stretch marks, it could be a little more difficult to get rid of the existing ones than you might have originally thought. Whilst there are a number of stretch mark treatments on the market which are extremely effective – the issue is that these treatments require persistence, commitment, and a lot of patience to work. Assuming that you have this – you should be able to get those nasty and unsightly stretch markets to disappear in no time.