Skin Care Conditions

Perhaps your skin's been doing great for some time now. It functions well, it's smooth, plump, moist and radiant. And then something happens to change all that, seemingly overnight. This section is designed to help you find and try to determine what may be happening. It has descriptions of most of the common skin care conditions.

Skin Tags
Skin tags occur in approximately half of the American population. Although they are small, they may be unsightly and even painful for those who have them. What is this common skin ailment? It is skin tags, small growths of skin that tend to appear in body creases. Much is known about what skin tags are and...

Cellulite
Cellulite is misshapen fat cells due to restrictive connective tissue. These misshapen fat cells have a tendency to create ripples in the skin, especially in the upper arm, thighs, and abdominal area of women. This skin appearance is often referred to as "cottage cheese". As much as the advertisers for miracle fat creams or fad diet supplements want to tell you otherwise...

Melasma
Melasma, known for years as "the mask of pregnancy," is not unique to women. Melasma is a skin condition characterized by dark patches of color on the face, most commonly on the forehead, cheeks, and nose areas. While links have been made to hormonal changes, like those that result from birth control pills and pregnancy, it is a skin condition that can affect...

Vitiligo
All coloring on the body is caused by melanin, which is naturally produced in the skin by melanocytes. Melanocytes are responsible for the pigmentation in skin, hair, eyes, and other areas of the body. Vitiligo is a disorder where patches or areas of the body's melanocytes produce less melanin, or stop altogether. As a result, the areas lose pigmentation and look white...

Stretch Marks
Skin is the body's super hero. It acts as a protective covering, provides an immunity barrier to microscopic invaders, and refreshes and renews itself on regular intervals. But all super heroes have a their limits, and skin is no different. While our skin is very elastic, traumas such as great weight gain or loss will leave a small remnant of the stress called striae, or stretch marks. Stretch marks appear white or a dull red with a silvery sheen...

Impetigo
Once the infection has taken hold on a child's skin, the symptoms will manifest within 1 - 3 days. Symptoms include skin lesions, most commonly occurring around the nose, mouth and hands. These legions will appear as pimple like bumps...

Seborrheic Dermatitis
Seborrheic dermatitis is a common skin condition that can affect people of any age. Recognized as a scaly, red, itchy rash that is commonly found on the scalp, eyebrows, eyelids, sides of the nose, behind the ears and on the chest, it is an uncomfortable...

Scabies
If you've recently been diagnosed with scabies, you might be wondering what it is and what caused the horrendous itching. The name alone is enough to make your skin crawl: scabies. By learning what caused your condition and how to deal with it, you can take charge of the itching and start down the road to recovery...

Ingrown Hairs
Ingrown hair is a hair that has not broken through the surface of the skin. It continues to grow under the skin. When this happens, baceria, pus, and dead skin cells get trapped along with the hair. Ingrown hairs are common anywhere there is curly hair. The area under your chin, pubic area, upper neck or cheeks can be subject to an uncomfortable cluster of papules and sometimes pustules, which can make shaving very difficult...

Sun Damage
The sun greets us when we awaken in the morning and calls us to rest as it sets. The timing of our daily activities, such as waking, sleeping and eating, are modulated by our circadian rhythms, and those are based on the sun. We need the sun for survival and sustenance...

Skin Cancer
Over one million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in the Unoted States annually. Eight percent of those will be basal cell carcinoma, 16 percent are squamous cell carcinoma, and 4 percent are melanoma. Skin cancer can appear anywhere on the body, but most often in areas that have been exposed to sun radiation...

Dry Skin
Today, millions of American lay claim to having dry skin. And there are certainly thousands of skin care products formulated and marketed especially for dry skin. Yet, as a genetic skin type, dry skin by itself doesn't exist. What does exist is dehydrated skin. If you are an oily dry skin type, you may or may not be dehydrated...

Rosacea
Rosacea is an inflammatory blood vessel and capillary disorder that occurs mostly in adults. It's most common in people of Celtic and Scandinavian descent. Rosacea appears on the face, and can also appear on the neck, chest, scalp, or ears. Most often, the first signs of rosacea are frequent flushing or...

Eczema
Eczema is also known as atopic dermatitis. Virtually anything can trigger dermatitis. Eczema is a reaction to something you touch or that touches you. As best you can, identify the source of your eczema and eliminate it...

Psoriasis
Psoriasis is a chronic and recurring skin disease. It's characterized by a heavy buildup of dead skin cells. What happens is that new skin cells grow so quickly that your skin isn't able to shed the dead cells fast enough to keep up with the growth...