BirthMarks
Your skin, the largest organ of the body, can give away a lot of information you would rather keep to yourself-like the condition you were in when you crawled into bed too late last night.
It can also tell a great deal about your state of health (or lack of it), since it often shows the first outward signs that something inside has gone wrong.
But if the skin is an informant, it’s also a bodyguard. And the epidermis, the outer layer, bears the brunt of it all. It suffers abrasive washings, slatherings with cosmetics, burns in the summer sun, cuts, scrapes and a number of other abuses.
But the epidermis is mighty strong, and it adjusts and adapts as needed to such insults, though it’s most sensitive where it’s thinnest-on the eyelids-and toughest where it’s thickest-on the soles of the feet.
The second layer of skin
The dermis, is where all the action takes place. It contains the sebaceous glands (which manufacture the skin’s oil, or sebum), the sweat glands and the hair follicles.
This is also where the nerve endings are located that tell you when you’ve stepped on a nail, burned a finger or been stung by a bee. The elasticity of the dermis provides the firm, youthful skin that we all admire, especially when we’re 50.
Just below the dermis is the subdermis, also known as body fat. This provides the “padding” for the bones and muscles and rounds out the contours of your body.
It’s the quality of your skin that lays claim to your beauty-but in truth, beautiful skin is much more than the lack of wrinkles, blemishes, and other flaws. Truly beautiful skin exudes health.
When you don’t look good, chances are you don’t feel good. So pay attention to your skin’s signals and symptoms. The information below will help you translate what your skin may be telling you.
SYMPTOM: Birthmarks
COMMON CAUSES: Port wine stain, strawberry hemangioma, cavernous hemangioma. These are accurately called vascular birthmarks, meaning they are caused by a concentration of tiny blood vessels in the skin. They are fairly common.
Although it’s not precisely known what causes birthmarks to occur, evidence does not support the belief that they are caused during pregnancy by some event in the mother’s life such as a fright, a bad dream, a bad injury, medication, or even a mishap during childbirth. But, as their name suggests, they are almost always something we are presented with at birth.
Birthmarks go by the three names mentioned above because they have three distinct characteristics. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, this is the lowdown on birthmarks.
Port-wine stain is the most common and appears as a red, blue, or purplish discoloration of the skin on the face, neck, trunk, or limbs. Less often it occurs in the mouth, nose, or other body openings.
At birth, the surface of the port-wine stain is usually flat and not elevated above the surrounding normal skin. Later in life, the birthmark may appear thicker and develop small bumps and ridges.
Port-wine stains often bleed after injury, and the bleeding is sometimes difficult to control.
A strawberry hemangiom
as you might guess, resembles the color and contour of a strawberry. This type of birthmark is elevated above the surface of the skin and is usually one to two inches in diameter, although it can cover an entire arm or leg.
Strawberry hemangiomas can appear at birth or during the first few months of life. Unlike port-wine stains, which are usually permanent, most strawberry birthmarks disappear by early childhood-50 percent are gone by age five and 70 percent by age seven.
Of the birthmarks that don’t disappear, only about 6 percent are so cosmetically disturbing that they require treatment to remove them or prevent further growth.
A cavernous hemangioma is the least common type of vascular birthmark. It is elevated and bluish in color, and usually no larger than three inches in diameter. Its growth and disappearance are similar to a strawberry hemangioma except that, in some cases, a cosmetic flaw will remain.
Pigmented spots and moles are also considered birthmarks. (For more on moles, see Symptom: Mole, Change in.)
BEST RESPONSE:
It’s very important that birthmarks be examined by a physician as early as possible so that a correct diagnosis and a decision about treatment can be made.
Many authorities recommend waiting for at least four years before treating the ordinary strawberry or cavernous hemangioma. By that time, it will be evident if improvement is going to occur naturally.
In the past, people with port-wine hemangiomas had only two choices for treatment-covering the area with cosmetics or having plastic surgery.
Now they can be removed by laser beam, says David Apfelberg, M.D., a plastic surgeon at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation in California. With this method, about 50 to 70 percent of a birthmark can be faded out.
A deep blue port-wine stain will become light violet, and a red one will pale to pink after five or six half-hour treatments.
The procedure can be done in a doctor’s office, and the patient needs only a local anesthetic. Occasional possible side effects include scarring or changes in skin pigmentation or texture.
SEE YOUR DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY IF
Your skin feels numb
Your skin turns yellow
You have a red line or lines moving up your arms or legs
Your skin has been broken as a result of a bite from an animal or a person
You’re bleeding profusely
You’ve been severely burned
You notice pus oozing from a cut
You develop a flat, red rash on your palms, wrists, ankles and soles of your feet after being bitten by a tick
Your skin is pale, moist and cold, and this is accompanied by faintness, nausea, panting and rapid pulse rate
Your skin turns blue
Your skin turns black
You have a swollen, tender bite that is accompanied by fever and swollen glands
