There are many times in a person's life, for both men and women, when the scarring of stretch marks is likely to occur, and it is at these times when you should take measures to prevent stretch mark scarring. To understand how to prevent this scarring from happening, you first must understand how these scars occur. The elasticity of your skin can accommodate slow changes in your body size, but when your body size changes dramatically and the rate of change exceeds the elasticity, the skin experiences small tears under the surface. These tears result in scarring, or stretch marks. You can get these scars commonly during times of your life when your body size changes drastically from weight loss associated with extreme dieting, weight gain from pregnancy or postpartum weight loss, growth spurts, bodybuilding and more.

The key to prevent stretch mark scarring from occurring is to make every attempt to moderate your weight gain or weight loss. Some periods of growth are just not under your control, such as growth spurts and some of the weight gain of pregnancy, but others can be managed with your care and diligence. In addition, you can make attempts to increase the elasticity of the skin. Drinking extra water during these periods of life when you are most susceptible for stretch marks can go a long way toward helping you to prevent stretch mark scarring. Along those same lines, you can increase your intake of foods high in water content such as watermelon while decreasing your intake of foods and drinks that are dehydrating in nature, such as products with caffeine.

There are some products on the market designed to reduce your risk of scarring from skin stretching as well. These often contain natural vitamins, minerals and oils, and many include other ingredients like cocoa butter or shea butter as well.

For more info about stretch mark prevention and elimination visit: How to get rid of stretch marks!