When prevention is neglected pregnancy, body building, fast weight gain and even fast growth become a usual factor that causes stretch marks.

Stretch marks are caused by abnormal hormone activity. You don't have 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 hide them.

Stretch Mark Related Causes:

* Pregnancy

* Normal growth for adolescent boys and girls

* Rapid weight loss or weight gain

* Long term nutrient deficiency

* Unexpected change in physical or environmental conditions

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

The real problem is that the body generates the wrong information about 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 strong enough to withstand over-stretching they break apart and stretch marks are formed.

Although in several cases they seem to simply emerge overnight this isn't entirely true. They start from deep skin layers and gradually progress to the skin's surface.

Stretch marks affect young and old, fat and thin, men and women. In many 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 first 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 evolve 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 bother enough or maybe in a doctor's eyes stretch marks are not a real problem because they don't really inflict any real physical discomfort

Stretch marks are partial thickness 'tears' within the skin, meaning that they are essentially subdural scars. The best stretch mark cream isn't one that contains tons of elastin and collagen, but one that stimulates the synthesis of collagen, elastin and the water holding ability of healthy skin. Collagen is the skin's building block, 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 reinforce the epidermal layer.