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This is a sad truth that we have to look into if you want your skin to remain radiant and beautiful. If you already have stretch marks, then it's time to take control of your skin.
This article aims to provide the regular reader with an arsenal of easy, feel-good steps to better skin. The aim is to help the skin repair itself and minimize scarring and formation of stretch marks. If the stretch marks are already there, these steps would aid in its gradual removal.
What to do
1. Exfoliation is important for the complete reduction of stretch marks. But you don't have to invest in expensive chemical-based creams for this purpose. What you can do is to simply mix almond oil and oatmeal and make yourself your very own exotic exfoliating mixture.
Oatmeal is known for easing away dead skin cells and re-hydrating dried up skin areas. Almond oil is known for its restorative properties, and of course, the oil smells really good on skin. Remember to exfoliate daily- at least twice a day.
2. Salt bath- taking a salt bath (about 4 cups of salt to one large bath tub of hot water) will ease circulation and ease fluid retention. Stretch marks can result from fluid retention or specifically long term fluid retention. This will inscribe a web work of stretch marks on your abdomen.
Taking regular hot salt baths would help make your skin that much stronger and would also stimulate the glands beneath the surface of the skin, including the collagen-rich fibroblast cell groups in the middle layer just before the epidermis.
3. Olive oil- this oil is not just for cooking nice pasta and meats. Olive oil is actually a wonderful moisturizer and appropriate massage oil. Remember that massaging your tummy should also be part of your daily routine.
If you dislike mineral oil and don't like buying expensive massage oils, you can very well use virgin olive oil to massage your abdominal area. Remember to massage in a downward motion and isolate the widest areas in your abdominal region.
4. If you are experiencing sun damage in conjunction with your stretch marks, there is no need to treat one problem and ignore the other. One way to avoid extra fast pigmentation is by putting on sunscreen with SFP of at least 20.
Do not wear anything outside the house without any SFP. Not only is it useless but you would be exposing your already sensitive skin to the sun's damaging rays. Consider your skin a very fragile material, at least until your sensitive skin eases up after pregnancy.
5. If you think your breasts will be in danger of having stretch marks then do something about it immediately. Remember that the breasts which are soft and firm in the beginning, have no real muscles supporting them.
The pectoral muscles are all you have, and this broad strip of muscle should be exercised regularly to strengthen the skin of the breasts as well.
The use of an anti-stretch mark creams is the best method for the prevention of stretch marks. Successful prevention depends on the intensity of the cream. Mere moisturizers, like cocoa butter, offer minimum protection against stretch marks, also known as striae. Creams that contain trace amounts of collagen and elastin or that are packed with them do no more than temporarily attract moisture to the skin and can not be more effective than cocoa butter creams in preventing striae. The creams that are effective in the prevention and repair of stretch marks are those that contain biological substances that signal your body to reproduce collagen and elastin at a quick pace and to dissolve damaged skin cells.
Why are elastin and collagen creams no more effective than mere moisturizing creams? Collagen and elastin are proteins which occur naturally in the skin. Collagen is, in fact, the building block of our skin. It gives skin the ability to bind. Elastin is another very important protein found in our skin, which gives it its elasticity. Both must be built from within your body, and not merely "added" to your skin. Adding bovine collagen or elastin levels to your body from the outside, do no more than temporarily attract moisture to your skin as any protein binds to water in a proportion of about four times its weight. Mere water within the skin does not prepare the skin to avoid tearing when over-stretched
Striae is caused when the skin is pushed beyond its ability to stretch, which causes tearing. These tears are replaced with rippled, discolored scar tissue. If you can prevent the tears from happening by giving the skin a greater ability to stretch, you won't get stretch marks. Rubbing on a cream loaded with biological activators that signal your body to reproduce collagen and elastin quickly is the easiest and best way to give the skin it´s elasticity.
Successful Prevention of Skin Damage with Biological Activators
There are three types of biological activators: (1) enzymes that catalyze or speed up biochemical reactions within skin cells and digest or dissolve damaged or worn out cells, (2) growth factor proteins which enable cells to communicate and effectively coordinate activities between one another for orderly cell reproduction or division, and (3) glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which are complex carbohydrate chains that provide binding, hydrating and swelling pressure to tissues enabling them to withstand pressure and successfully prevent tearing and scarring in the deep layers of the skin during pregnancy, growth spurts during adolescence, overstretching due to body building or over stretching by more than average weight gain.