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

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

Stretch Mark Related Causes:

* Pregnancy

* Natural growth for teenager boys and girls

* Sudden weight fluctuations

* Long term deficiency of specific nutrients

* Unexpected change in physical or environmental conditions

* Certain medication may also generate stretch marks, especially steroids analogous medications.

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

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

Stretch marks happen to fat and thin, young and old, men and women. In most 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 beginning stage of development they are a pinkish or faint red color. The pinkish coloring is because the micro blood vessels break open and bleed. These scars generally 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 doctors 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 inflict any real physical discomfort

Stretch marks are fractional thickness 'tears' within the skin, meaning that they are essentially subdural scars. The best stretch mark product isn't one that contains tons of elastin and collagen, but one that triggers the synthesis of collagen, elastin and the water holding ability of healthy skin. Collagen is the building block of skin, and elastin is the protein which gives skin its elasticity. By increasing the levels of these proteins in your skin, from the inside out , you can strenghten the epidermal layer.