- 1 week ago
Anyone can get stretch marks. Lucie talks to Dr. Erin Gilbert about what causes stretch marks and new ways to think about them on The Fink Tank.
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00:00I remember 9th grade like it was yesterday.
00:03I was 4 foot 11 and it seemed that, almost overnight, my body just sprung up and stretched
00:09out until I was 5 foot 7.
00:11So what actually happens when your body stretches out too quickly for your skin to keep up?
00:17Well, you might get stretch marks.
00:19Stretch marks can form for a few different reasons, but many girls and women develop
00:24them on their breasts, their thighs, their hips and butts.
00:27And they're really fine lines that look almost like lightning bolts.
00:31And even if at first you believe them to be ugly scars, many people come to appreciate
00:37them.
00:37So today I'm bringing in board certified dermatologist and neuroscientist Dr. Erin Gilbert to teach
00:43us all about stretch marks, what they are and why we should be proud of them.
00:48Just because you have stretch marks does not mean your body is ruined.
00:54You're a god damn tiger and you've earned those stripes.
00:58I'm Lucy Fink and this is the Fink Tank.
01:02Welcome Dr. Gilbert.
01:04Hi.
01:05Thank you for having me.
01:06Thank you for having me.
01:07Wow.
01:07We are so in sync.
01:08So I brought you here today because I wanted to talk about this daunting topic for many people.
01:13I know.
01:14Stretch marks.
01:15Yeah.
01:15Totally.
01:15Totally basics.
01:16What is a stretch mark?
01:17What's going on?
01:19So stretch marks are something that a lot of people get particularly in their adolescence
01:23or if they have rapid weight gain.
01:26And your skin has multiple layers.
01:28Your skin has the epidermis which is the top layer.
01:31You got the middle layer which is the dermis.
01:34And then you have the layer below which is the hypodermis.
01:38So essentially where this is all taking place is in the dermis which is in the middle.
01:42Got it.
01:43Okay.
01:44Collagen lives there.
01:45And collagen is the most abundant protein in the body.
01:49And one cool factoid is that collagen, certain types pound for pound, is actually stronger
01:55than steel.
01:57And this is under my skin?
01:58Yeah.
01:58It's in your skin.
01:59Okay.
02:00What is happening with the collagen when we're stretching and when we have this either rapid
02:04growth or rapid weight gain?
02:05Why is it stretched this way?
02:07Essentially you're getting pulled and stretched whether it's vertically because you're growing
02:12or horizontally because you're growing by gaining weight.
02:16And so basically your skin can't keep up.
02:19And what happens is you wind up breaking that collagen.
02:22Is this something that happens to men?
02:24Is this a problem for young boys and growing teens?
02:27It's a problem for growing teens of all types.
02:30In women it tends to be in different locations.
02:32For men often times it's like in the biceps and chest and sometimes on the lower back.
02:38So I think a lot of people wind up with stretch marks and almost immediately they feel this
02:43overwhelming devastation.
02:45Like is this ever going to go away?
02:47Right.
02:47Right.
02:47What am I supposed to do with this?
02:48I'm now permanently scarred on my body.
02:50So what's the answer to that?
02:52Is it permanent?
02:53They are unfortunately something that's going to stick around.
02:57The good news is that they do fade and color over time and they tend to become like less
03:02visible.
03:03And one thing that I find positive about stretch marks is that a lot of people look at their
03:08stretch marks and they don't feel this overwhelming disappointment.
03:11They don't feel sad about it.
03:13Instead they look at it and they feel like these are my stripes.
03:15You know I earned these.
03:17I grew into these.
03:18I've seen people actually do really cool tattoos around stretch marks so they've made
03:22it almost look like some kind of like they'll do laces around it so like the stretch marks
03:26are part of the laces.
03:28So they actually turn the stretch marks into art.
03:31Yeah.
03:31That is amazing.
03:32Of course I feel like in order to fully understand what this looks like and a full demo of the
03:38human skin, we're going to need to do a think tank demonstration.
03:43All right, let's bring on one of my favorite foods, the cake.
03:49Cake!
03:50Cake!
03:50Cake!
03:51Cake!
03:51Cake!
03:51Cake!
03:52Cake!
03:52Cake!
03:52Cake!
03:53Cake!
03:54Cake!
03:56Cake!
04:04Cake!
04:04Yes!
04:04We kind of yeah, we have to put that in the bed and just throw some collagen in there.
04:06Collagen has come up a lot these days.
04:08I feel like collagen is this trendy thing that spas are telling you they're going to do
04:12a collagen facial and collagen this and collagen that.
04:15Right.
04:15Is it actually possible to infuse yourself with more collagen than you have?
04:21Collagen is a pretty big molecule.
04:23so it's kind of long and tenderly and to get things into your skin they kind of
04:28have to be smaller so really they just kind of sit there and they don't really
04:32penetrate and they don't really do anything. There have been studies in
04:36animals, shame, that essentially show that there's a little bit of improvement
04:42if you drink the collagen if you take it orally but it's really it's kind of
04:47minimal. And then of course I have here our next layer of cake which is our
04:52epidermis. Awesome. This is like the best moisturizer in the world. It is. Yeah I
04:58recommend usually that my patients put frosting all over their body like on a
05:02daily basis. It totally helps. I really chose chocolate because it's my favorite
05:05flavor but we did bring rainbow sprinkles so that we could recognize that this
05:10cake human is multicultural and multiracial. It's fluidity in terms of
05:15gender. It just represents all people everywhere. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Skin has never
05:21tasted so good. This is not going to be good for our stretch marks. Okay surgery
05:27time. I'm the surgeon here. Are you ready doctor? Oh gosh I'm ready. All right nice and
05:37clean. Wow. Good. So this is your epidermis which is layer number one. This is
05:44your dermis which is the pink layer where the collagen is going to live and
05:48underneath is the hypodermis. So middle layer collagen pink and that's where
05:54we're going to be getting that stretching that I was talking about before. So now
05:57that we have this diagram and we we know what it looks like I have another
06:02physical demonstration that I wanted to do with you using silly putty.
06:06It's gonna go. So that's what happens. So here is your broken collagen. So you're
06:14telling me that a stretch mark is actually because it broke. Totally. Got it. And it
06:19gets like thin and fragmented and it just really isn't doing its job which is
06:24holding your skin together like that firm structure. Right. Mm-hmm. So this is
06:29actually alongside our model of the dermis. This is actually pretty accurate. Yeah. Ah
06:36yours broke. Okay let's see if I can do it. Oh. Okay you know why I have like so
06:42much lotion on as a dermatologist that it's like not breaking. So if you're
06:45sitting at home and you're wondering why you have stretch marks, what they are, and
06:48you didn't know, I hope that our demonstration and our silly putty helped
06:52explain that to you. Totally. But if you have any more questions follow Dr. Erin
06:56Gilbert on Instagram at Dr. Erin Gilbert underscore derm and DM her. Ask her your
07:01questions. Also you can always DM me and maybe I'll have the answer because I've
07:06been educated by a doctor. See you next time on the Think Tank.