Foods To Avoid During Pregnancy

Pregnancy is the most important time in your life to eat healthy, as you are eating not only for yourself but also for your baby. Apart from consuming a healthy diet full of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, you should know what to avoid during your pregnancy as well. Here are some foods and drinks that should be completely avoided:

Raw Sea food and Mercury rich fish:

Raw sea food like oysters, uncooked sushi and sashimi should be completely avoided during your pregnancy, as well as certain fish that are very high in mercury as they may cause problems with your baby’s developing nervous system. These fish include shark, mackerel, tile fish and sword fish.

Soft Cheeses:

Soft cheeses such as Brie, Camembert, feta, queso fresco, queso blanco and Stilton (Blue cheese) should be avoided completely. These contain harmful bacteria that can make you sick.

Raw meats and raw eggs:

Raw or undercooked meat, eggs and poultry should also be…

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Living with Stretch Marks

stretch mark creams

Stretch Marks are white or pinkish stripes or lines on your skin. They often appear on the tummy, thighs, buttocks, and underside of the arms. They also appear on the chest area. You get them when you get pregnant, experience hormonal changes, or gain and lose weight at a rapid rate.

For some people, stretch marks are embarrassing skin blemishes. This is why they use creams and other products to get rid of the marks. They do not venture out in skimpy clothing when they know that their stretch marks can be exposed for all the world to see.

Now there is nothing wrong with wanting to get rid of stretch marks. If you have the patience to wait for the creams to work, then by all means, keep applying them. But it is not a good thing to actually suffer emotionally because of stretch marks. If you can learn to live with them, your health will not suffer.…

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Stretch Marks and Your Social Relationships

perfect skin

Stretch marks can affect your confidence. It is true that stretch marks will not affect your overall health. They are not fatal. They are not symptoms of serious diseases. However, stretch marks can “kill” your social life.

Most cultures all over the world view smooth skin without blemishes beautiful. This is why the image of a woman in a bikini with a beautiful body AND smooth skin is universally appealing to everyone. We can all agree that skin without a hint of stretch marks is beautiful.

So if you have stretch marks, you will not be too confident about wearing a bikini and making friends at the beach. And when it comes to moments of intimacy, your stretch marks can prevent you from feeling truly beautiful and ruining what could potentially be a life-changing experience. Lack of confidence, after all, is a turn off for some men (and women).

So what should you do? Either you can…

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Stress and Stretch Marks

stretch marks on belly

You often hear people attribute their physical conditions to stress. When some people get acne, they blame stress. When they get tummy troubles, they blame stress. Even for some serious diseases such as cancer, stress plays a role. And when it comes to stretch marks, stress can be one of the things to blame as well.

Stretch marks, as experts say, occur when your skin loses its elasticity. This loss of elasticity is caused by many things. One is hormonal changes when women get pregnant or when children reach puberty. Another reason is when people gain or lose weight rapidly.

The latter reason is related to stress. People react to stress differently. One of the common ways that people cope with stress is to find comfort in food. For some strange reason, food makes them feel happy. For some unnatural and wrong reason, food, for some people, is one of of the strong weapons against stress.

In…

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Can You Avoid Stretch Marks?

stretch mark creams

Can you avoid stretch marks? How do we do it when its causes are as powerful as genes and hormones? Is it even possible to stop them from appearing on your skin? You will be glad to know that it is.

You have probably read or been told that the common causes of stretch marks are hormonal changes and rapid weight loss or weight gain. While we can control our weight, there really is nothing you can do about your hormonal changes. This is true when you reach puberty or when you get pregnant.

Moreover, you already probably know that genes play a big role on stretch marks. Whether or not you will get stretch marks is pretty much written on your genes. However, just because you have the predisposition, it does not mean that you will actually contract the disease.

Yes, you can avoid stretch marks but you have to be very persistent. First off,…

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Medications that Cause Stretch Marks

stretch marks

Most of us are under the impression that stretch marks occur naturally and we should just find ways to reduce their visibility when they decide to grace our skin with their presence. This is true in most cases. Naturally, when women get pregnant, around 90% of them get stretch marks. Naturally, when we lose or gain weight drastically, we get stretch marks as well. Naturally, puberty can lead to stretch marks, too. But did you know that there are instances when stretch marks can occur by unnatural means? There are instances when medications that your doctor might prescribe to you can make stretch marks appear on your skin.

You already know that hormonal changes can lead to stretch marks. This is exactly what happens when we reach puberty or when women get pregnant. But you might not be aware that there are medicines that cause hormonal changes as well.

One example of medication that causes stretch marks…

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Hormones Are the Heart of Stretch Marks

stretch mark creams

Did you know that hormones are basically the cause of stretch marks? However, you shouldn’t assume that you need to be overweight or pregnant in order to get them. In fact, more people than you might realize have stretch marks. But many sufferers keep them under wraps by covering them with clothing or simply not mentioning their stretch marks.

The hormone activity related to stretch marks typically occurs during:

* The growth of teenagers
* abrupt changes in environmental or physical conditions
* particular medications (and mainly steroids)
* quick weight loss or weight gain
* long deficiency of particular nutrients

Here’s what happens when stretch marks form. The body processes or sends faulty data about the development of the skin. Afterwards, the skin manufactures an inadequate quantity of elastin and collagen, which create the skin’s connective tissue. Then when these connective tissues are incapable of holding up when the skin becomes pulled…

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The Cause of Stretch Marks

stretch marks

You could probably recognize a stretch mark in a lineup of skin abnormalities, but what exactly causes them? Understanding how stretch marks form can help in treating and avoiding them.

When skin becomes stretched so much that it starts to break down then stretch marks form. Think of the process as a rubber band losing its stretchiness. When the skin loses elastin and collagen, various skin abnormalities can occur, including stretch marks. When this happens, the stretch marks that appear typically are visible through the skin’s top layer (the epidermis).

Normal physical development frequently causes stretch marks, and particularly in females. Natural causes of stretch marks include hormones, pregnancy, and rapid physical growth. Meanwhile, major stretch marks often result from various medications.

What actually happens to the skin when stretch marks form on your skin? A weakness in the skin’s sustaining structure results in various layers of skin splitting. This causes the skin to become discolored…

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Correcting Stretch Marks Misconceptions

stretch mark creams

When I was young, I thought only pregnant women and overweight people get stretch marks. This is why when I discovered stretch marks on my buttocks around the time that I hit puberty, I got a little bit confused. I did not realize that I had misconceptions about stretch marks. Most people do, too. So in order for us to understand and deal with them better, it is best to correct these misconceptions. Here are a few:

1.Stretch marks are health threats. No they are not. They are a sign that your skin is not healthy but they are not fatal nor will they cause you other serious conditions.
2.Only women get stretch marks. This is not true. Men get stretch marks, too. Those who are into bodybuilding get stretch marks when they bulk up. You will also notice that overweight men have stretch marks on their tummy, thighs, arms, and buttocks.
3.When you lose weight, the…

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Collagen and Stretch Marks

old stretch marks

Collagen makes up for about three-fourths of healthy skin. When you have a good amount of collagen, your skill look look supple and feel smooth to touch. A healthy amount of collagen means that your skin is pretty much similar to that of a baby or a child. But as we get older, collagen production decreases. As a result, our skin gets wrinkles, age spots, stretch marks, and many other conditions that babies skins don’t have. Aside from aging, collagen production is also affected by pregnancy, weight loss, weight gain, and hormonal changes in the body.

But how does collagen affect the appearance of stretch marks on your skin? Collagen helps keep your skin elastic. Together with elastin, collagen will prevent your skin from stretching beyond its limit and contracting stretch marks.

It is true that as we get older, collagen production suffers. But there is a way to remedy this. You can take vitamins that boost…

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