Some words about stretchmarks

Stretchmarks occur when expanding skin is stretched to its limit and tiny tears appear in the supporting layers of skin. Stretch marks are quite common in pregnancy; about 50-90% of women will get stretch marks on their abdomen, breasts, thighs or buttocks during pregnancy.

We have three layers of skin: the epidermis, or outer layer; the dermis, or middle layer; and the subcutaneous stratum, or deepest layer. Stretch marks (also known as stria atrophica and striae distensae) occur in the dermis, the elastic, resilient middle layer that allows skin to retain its shape. If stretch marks formed on the skin's surface, they'd be much easier to treat. When the dermis is constantly stretched over time, the skin becomes less elastic and the connective fibers break. The result is the markings we know as stretch marks.

What Causes Stretch Marks

Your chances of getting pregnancy stretch marks depend on a number of factors. Family history makes a difference - if your mother got stretch marks, chances are you'll have them too. Ethnicity is another matter. Women with darker skin are less likely to get stretch marks. Weight gain and weight loss can also change the magnitude of your marks. Be sure to keep yourself hydrated, as this will help your skin stretch.

How stretchmarks develope

Depending on your natural skin coloring, stretch marks begin as raised pink, reddish brown or dark brown striations that then turn a brighter violet or purple. Gradually these bright marks flatten and fade to a color a few shades lighter than your natural skin tone. They usually become less noticeable over time.

Stretch marks can appear anywhere on the body where the skin has been stretched (often as a result of weight gain). They're most likely to appear in places where fat is stored: the abdomen, breasts, upper arms, thighs and buttocks. They pose absolutely no health risk and don't compromise your body's ability to function healthily; they are purely a cosmetic issue and need to be treated accordingly.



About brown spots or liver spots

Liver spots are brown areas or spots in the skin that often develop and extend as one ages, and are especially common after the age of 40. They are also called senile lentigines, solar lentigines, skin spots or age spots They ary in color from light brow or redddish to black.

They are most often seen on areas exposed to sunlight and are more common in people spending much time in sunshine. Liver-spots usually have sharp borders and they vary from light brown to near black. Once a spot has developed, it does not get darker with more sun exposure. The spots are usually not thickened or only slightly thickened.

Liverspots are areas with an excessive production of the skin color melanin. This occurs as a recation triggered by free radicals formed by sun exposure.

Sun exposure can cause liver spots, but they may occure without sun exposure. Formerly it was thought that a bad liver function could cause such spots. By now this is regarded as an misunderstanding. Still liver problems may cause the skin to be more susceptible for free radical damage, since the liver is the main detoxification organ of the body.

Common treatment of liver-spots are freezing (cryoablation) or burning with laser. Skin bleaching agent can also be used. Anti-oxydative creams can also help. These take a longer time to give effect, but the result seems to last longer.

The best way to prevent liver spots is protection of your skin against very strong or prolonged exposure.



About the common skin cancer - basal cell carcinoma

Cancers in the skin are cery common diseases, and perhaps most people get some kind of skin cancer as one ages. There are thre main types of skin cancer.

This is the most common type of all cancers. It is said to attack 30% of all persons some time in life. However, it probably occur in every person to some degree when one gets old enough, but most occurances probably get unrecogized. 80% of the occurances are on the head and neck

It grows very slowly and does not spread to other parts of the body than the skin, or very rearly do so. Therefore it does not threaten the life of the patient, but can give serious cosmetic problems.

However, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between this type of cancer and more dangerous skin cancers and all unnormal growth in the skin should therefore be investigated.

Symptoms of basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma originate from an uncontrolled proliferation of cancer cells originating from the bacal cells in the epidermis, the outer skin layer. The cancer is often confined to the epidermis but can also infiltrate deeper layers of the skin.

Basal cell carcinoma often appear as irregular lunps that grow and spread at the surface of the skin. It can also appear as irregular flakes of variable thickness that spread on the skin. The growths can be pale but also be of red or brownish color. Sometimes sores develop in the cancerous tissues, and sometimes the cancer appear mainly as sores that are spreading instead of flakes.

Diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma


Causes of basal cell carcinoma

Excessive sun exposure is a causing factor of this cancer. Genatic predisposition is another causing factor. Two thirds of the occurances are on skin surfaces often exposed to the sun.

Prevention of basal cell carcinoma

Basal cell carcinoma will often be prevented by avoiding excessive sun exposure. One must not expose unprotected skin to the sun rays too long. If one wants to or has to expose the skin for prolonged sunshine irradiation, one must use a protective cream with a high factor.

Treatment of basal cell carcinoma

Treatment of basal cell carcinoma is successful in most cases, and if not fully succesful it will keep the disease from spreading too far. Bacause the cancer is not usually a life-threatening disease, the method used will often depend upon these factors:

- How good cometic results the method will give

- The time the treatment with the method will take

- The cost of the method

- The equipment available for the doctor and the methods the doctor is trained to use

Surgery: Surgical excission has been a standard treatment of the disease. For small lessions that do not invade the skin, it is a very simple and succesful treatment.

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy with locally applied cystostatica is a simple method with cure rates of 70-90% . The agents most often used are 5-fluorouracil and imiquimod.

Radiation: Radiation therapy has also been a standard treatment module with a high degree of success. It is usuallye used where it will be complicated to remove the cancer with surgery or where surgery will give bad cosmetic effects. It is often combined with some degree of surgery.

Cryosurgery: Cryosurgery, that is freezing the cancer to death, is an old treatment. It is successful in most cases, but it is difficult to controle the effects of the treatment so that too much normal skin is destroyed by the freezing.

Photodynamic therapy: Photodynamic Therapy is a newly developed method to treat basal-cell carcinoma. By this methods substances that change the chemical structure when illuminated are applied to the skin. One lets the substance stay on some time to spread into the skin. Then light with the approprtiate frequencies is directed towards the area that is treated.

Methyl aminolevulinate is a photosensitizer approved for use in many countries. This therapy is also used in other skin cancer types. The method is mostly used in complicated and extended cases of skin cancer.

Electrodessication and curettage: By this metod the surface of the affected area is scraped by an appropriate knife. Then the sraped area is burned by elctric current applied to te area. The burning softens the underlaying tissue. Then the underlaying tissue is scraped. The cycle of scraping and burning is repeated some times. The method is easy to use, but doe not allways give good cosmetic results. It is therefore mostly used at seurfaces where the apearance is not so important.



About the medical plant Pycrorhiza curroa

Pycorrhiza curroa is a plant in the family Scrophularaceae growing in the Himalayan region. It grows in crevices between rocks and prefere sandy wet soil.

The plant has a horisontal root stock with rizomes, white or yellow wlowers on high stalks and oval dented leaves. Extract from the root stock and eizones are used as drug.

The plant is a traditional ingredient in ajurvedic medicine.

Active constituents

Active components in the plan is Kutkin iand the iridoid glycoside picrosides I, II, and III, the catechol apocynin, drosin, and cucurbitacin glycosides.

Apocynin alleviates inflammations and is an anti-oxidant. Curcubitacines work toxically against tumor cells.

The ingredients in the plant are not easily soluble in water. One therefore usually make extracts of it in by alcohol or other solvents and make a dry powder standardized so that there is 4% kutkin in it.

Medical properties

Traditionally the plant has been used against liver problems,

The plant helps to protect the liver against damages. It hinders many toxic substances from damaging the liver. It helps the liver to regenerate after damage and disease. It also help the liver to work better and thereby it is effective to treat hinderances in the gall flow. It may also be effective against viral hepatitis.

Pycorhiza helps to alleviate allergic reactions. It hinders release of histamine and reactions caused by histamine in the tissues, like spasms. The effect is due to a decreased level of histamine.

Pycorhiza is effective against astma, mostly due to its anti-allergic properties. It especially hinders the obstruction of the ariways caused by asthma. It hinders asthamtic reaction upon inhallation or oral inroduction of allergens.