When treatment is neglected pregnancy, body building, rapid weight gain and even rapid 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 have weight problems to get them. As a matter of fact, it is a very usual skin condition, but most people who have them are embarrassed and try to hide them.

Stretch Mark Associated Causes:

* Pregnancy

* Natural growth for teenager boys and girls

* Rapid weight variations

* Long term nutrient deficiency

* Sudden variation in physical or environmental conditions

* Some medication can also cause stretch marks, especially steroids analogous medications.

The real problem is that the body generates the wrong information about skin development. This causes skin to produce insufficient amounts of collagen and elastin, which form the connective tissue of skin. When connective tissues are not resistant enough to withstand over-stretching they break apart and stretch marks are formed.

Although in many cases they seem to simply emerge overnight this isn't entirely true. They are born from deep skin layers and slowly develop to the skin's surface.

Stretch marks happen to 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 it's too late to do anything about it.

In the first stage of development they are a pinkish or pale 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 tell you: 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 serious 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 product isn't one rich in elastin and collagen, but one that triggers the generation of collagen, elastin and the water retaining capacity of healthy skin. Collagen is the skin's building block, and elastin is the protein which gives skin its elasticity. By elevating the levels of these proteins in your skin, from the inside out , you can strenghten the epidermal layer.