John Myers
Stretch marks are your skin’s cry for help. But what is behind the phenomenon, what helps against it and how do you reduce the risk of the unwelcome lines? We explain everything you need to know and give practical tips for prevention and treatment.
The formation of stretch marks
First, they are bluish-reddish and then they shimmer white through the skin: Stretch marks appear on the thighs, abdomen, breasts, hips, or buttocks and mainly affect women. The reason: The beauty annoyance is microscopic tears in overstretched connective tissue, which is naturally weaker in females. The blood vessels shimmering through the tears initially shine through in red and blue before the tissue heals. The silver color thus marks scars in the tissue. How are they created? The weak connective tissue often overstretches during pregnancy, which is why the lines are often referred to as stretch marks. Other risk factors include excessive weight gain or loss and growth spurts during puberty.
How to prevent stretch marks
To avoid drastic weight fluctuations, a balanced diet with sufficient fluid intake is recommended. The latter is particularly important because water moisturizes your skin from the inside and makes it more elastic.
Sport or regular exercise is also essential, as it boosts the metabolism, thus promoting blood circulation in the skin and thus strengthening the connective tissue. Contrast showers or massages of the endangered body regions have a similar effect.
Also, moisturize your largest organ from the outside with your daily skincare routine. For example in the form of nourishing oils such as jojoba, almond, or coconut oil, and moisture boosters such as aloe vera. This keeps your skin supple. Antioxidants such as vitamin C and retinol also promote collagen production in your skin, which also makes it more resilient.
How to treat stretch marks
Unfortunately, these micro-scars can only be reduced today with cost-intensive treatments. Laser therapy is intended to use light energy to animate the injured tissue to regenerate and thus reduce the tears. Microneedling, in which fine needles inserted into the skin stimulates a similar process, has a very similar effect. But none of these methods completely eliminates stretch marks once they have formed. So it is better to prevent the formation of cracks every day!
