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The Doctors Book of Home Remedies II: Stretch Marks

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Stretch Marks

Since life is a series of trade-offs, it stands to reason that with every joyous event comes some downside: Experience the miracle of childbirth and you're bound to pay for it in some way--other than junior's college tuition.

Stretch marks are as much a part of motherhood as Hallmark greeting cards, but even so, you don't necessarily have to carry them for the rest of your life. These cosmetic curses (particularly annoying come bikini season) are just harmless reminders that the human body isn't made of Play-Doh. And while pregnancy takes most of the blame for stretch marks, anyone can get them. Puberty, obesity and even weight loss are all common causes. Any time the body goes through drastic enough physical changes, a skin protein substance called collagen can pull apart from the skin's elastic fibers, and that's when the telltale marks appear.

"They're basically nothing more than scars," says Stephen M. Purcell, D.O., chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and an assistant clinical professor at Hahnemann University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. So--what can you do about them?

If you go the doctor's prescription route, there's tretinoin, a topical derivative of vitamin A marketed as Retin-A and best known for its effectiveness at erasing wrinkles. But for some people, home remedies without prescription might also get results.

When Retin-A Works, When It Doesn't

Retin-A, which is available only with a doctor's prescription, has been getting a lot of attention for downplaying those nasty stretch marks. But there's a catch.

"The best time to use it is when the stretch marks are new--when they are pink and a little painful," says Melvin L. Elson, M.D., medical director of The Dermatology Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and the researcher who made the Retin-A/stretch mark connection. "If you wait until the marks become white, the success rate plummets from 80 percent to around 10 percent."

That means the prescription drug must be used within 6 to 12 weeks after getting the stretch marks--no later than three months after having a baby or losing a lot of weight. And Retin-A cannot be used during pregnancy or while you're breastfeeding.

As it does when used for wrinkles, the drug produces some initial skin irritation, peeling and redness at the application site. It works because it causes the "generation" of collagen, that all-important protein substance in the skin. Retin-A essentially performs a repair job, but you need to wait until the peeling and redness go away before you'll see its benefits. If a doctor does prescribe Retin-A, be sure to follow instructions carefully.

Buffer them up. "Although there's no scientific proof backing it up, some of my patients claim that rubbing on cocoa butter helps reduce or eliminate stretch marks--particularly in dark-skinned people," says Dr. Purcell.

Try hands-on healing. "We do know that massaging scars after surgery is beneficial, since it stimulates blood flow and distributes collagen more evenly--resulting in a less noticeable scar. So maybe that could work for stretch marks as well," says Dr. Purcell. "That could be the explanation behind cocoa butter." In other words, maybe it's the massaging action, rather than the cocoa butter, that gets rid of stretch marks.

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