Apanemia Health Centre

You want your skin (the skin of your face) look so perfect and smooth as that of the models in magazines, but for a while you have sprouted brown spots (brown) on the forehead, and especially in cheeks that get worse when you are exposed to the sun.

One of your friends also have them, but she sprang up during pregnancy and now we know what to do to eliminate them. Do not despair. This condition called melasma (in pregnant women is called chloasma), can be improved with proper treatment. But to begin with, both must be protected very well from the sun.

The skin is often a reflection of our habits, or certain circumstances in our lives. For example, melasma, which is the appearance of spots or areas of hyperpigmentation on the face, is a skin disorder common, affecting mostly young women and more often to tan leather. Men can have it too but is only 10% of cases. Let’s see what this condition and how it is presented.

Melasma is a hyperpigmentation of the skin, a dark brown or grayish gives no other symptoms (no pain, no itching, for example), but can be very annoying and aesthetic level that affects the face. What produces it? The main causes include:

* Exposure to sunlight, usually without protection, so it is more common in tropical climates.
* Hormonal changes, such as fluctuating levels of female hormones, estrogen and progesterone. Therefore it is very common during pregnancy (it is so common that they call the “mask of pregnancy or the mark”). When it appears during pregnancy called chloasma.
* It also occurs in some women taking birth control pills or those receiving hormone replacement therapy during menopause.
* It also causes the use of products that irritate the skin and / or stimulate the production of melanin (the pigment that gives color to the skin and is responsible for tanning).

People with a genetic predisposition or family history of melasma are more likely to suffer from this condition.

When you see one of these patterns adopted:

* Centrofacial: in the center of the face. It is the most common and includes the forehead, cheeks, upper lips, nose and chin.
* Malar: the most protuberant (prominent) of the cheeks
* Jaw: the contour of the jaw bone

There are also four types of pigmentation associated with melasma:

* Epidermal: characterized by excess melanin in the superficial layers of the skin (epidermis).
* Dermal: This type is recognized by the presence of melanophages (cells that eat melanin) in the dermis, which is the layer of skin that lies beneath the surface layers.
* Mixed: which includes a mixture of the two.
* A fourth, unclassified, which is characterized by an excess of melanocytes in dark-skinned people.