Milk Heals Skin and Possibly Scars?

Are there any scientific backgrounds to Cleopatra bathing in milk? According to doctor Timothy Rayner there are.

It turns out milk really does have a lot to do with healing skin, particularly in burns patients. And milk seems to benefit not just wound healing but also (potentially) scar healing.

Dr Timothy Rayner and his team discovered that it stimulated skin cells to produce collagen. They went looking for the responsible agent and found a protein molecule that not only promotes collagen production, but also has the potential to increase the speed with which new tissue is formed.

Read the whole interview on the National Health and Medical Research website of the Australian government.

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Topical Vitamin E and Silicone Scar Treatment

According to the Topical Treatments for Hypertrophic Scars report the combination of topical vitamin E with silicone sheets is effective:

When used in conjunction with silicone gel sheets, however, vitamin E has been shown to improve pre-existing hypertrophic scars. In all, 38 patients (95%) who received silicone gel sheets with added vitamin E improved by at least 50% with respect to color, size, and cosmetic appearance, whereas only 30 patients (75%) using silicone gel sheets alone improved at least 50% after 2 months of treatment.56 This study led to the conclusion that the combination of vitamin E and silicone gel sheeting is beneficial in hypertrophic scar treatment, possibly as a result of a synergistic effect.

More scar treatment information on stem cell scar creams and other therapies.

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Scar Removal with Silicone Strips

A person's age, life style, race, genetics (being prone to scarring might run in the family), the location on the body and overall skin properties, the intensity of the injury, the quality of the wound healing process, possible infections all are factors affecting scar development. Some of them can be influenced and controlled.

A healthy life style will help. Eating a well balanced diet, drinking enough, avoiding excessive alcohol intake and last but not least not smoking because smoking really is detrimental to the skin and to scar development in particular.

The wound healing process can be controlled by efforts to avoid or treat infections. Medical honey wound gels and dressings show to be a very effective wound treatment and some special types of honey are even thought (by researchers) to minimize scarring.

How the most accepted, most scientifically proven scar improving product, silicone gel strips, exactly works remains unclear. There are several hypotheses.

Studies have shown that silicone gel strips do not change temperature, pressure, or oxygen tension of the scar tissue. The strips (dressings) have an evaporative water loss almost half that of skin and have been compared with the outermost layer of the epidermis (stratum corneum).

Many researchers believe that silicone acts by creating an occluded, hydrated environment that decreases the blood flow in the smallest blood vessels (capillary activity), thereby reducing the collagen deposition which leads to (hypertrophic) scar development.

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Scar Removal by Laser

While non surgical scar removal solutions can improve the appearance of scars to a certain extent, more problematic scars ask for other treatments. Most dermatologists will advice patients to indulge in less invasive methods first. (e.g. silicone sheeting, silicone gels, pressure garments, massage, heat application, centellase)

Laser is commonly used for acne scar removal. Its purpose is not only to reduce the scar appearance but also to keep them from coming back.

In the 1980's laser was used for the first time in the treatment of keloid and hypertrophic scars. Back then the results were not very promising and scars that did improve tended to reappear after a while. Since then laser treatment has been improved.

Nowadays laser scar removal can reduce acne, hypertrophic and keloid scars. For hypertrophic scars the most improvement is seen after two or three laser treatments. (generally improvement of 50 - 80%) For keloids more sessions are needed to get comparable results. One critical note; expectations should be tempered a bit because, like with all treatments, laser scar removal is more about reducing rather than totally eradicating scar tissue.

A session will take about 10 to 90 minutes and the treatment is commonly performed under local anesthesia. The intensity of the laser depends on the patient's skin type and size, color, thickness and location of the scar. Possible side effects are hyperpigmentation and (ocassionally) dermatitis (rash). The latter mostly develops due to the use of topical antibiotics or adhesive bandages.

Topical antibiotics are known to cause skin irratation. That's why it's good to know there are alternatives without these side effects.

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Valuable Getting Rid of Scars Advice

This is a great piece of getting rid of scars advice I found last night.
In this article on dermatology website Skinandaging.com Dr. Sarah L. Taylor, a dermatology clinical research fellow at Wake Forest University School of Medicine Winston-Salem, N.C., gives an overview of which scar removal treatment products are recommended by dermatologists, cosmetic surgeons and other medical personnel. The article is about the effectiveness of popular over-the-counter scar treatment products and the evidence behind these products.

What works?
All the most common over the counter scar removal products are mentioned; topical vitamin E, onion extract based scar creams like Mederma, silicone sheeting, honey as a topical scar removal product, lime juice, cucumber juice, cocoa butter, and aloe vera.

Summary of the article:
"To summarize, silicone gel has the most data behind it as an efficacious topical, over-the-counter treatment option for scars, and is an option for patients who want something they can buy themselves. Also, there is probably not any harm, and possibly some benefit, to rubbing honey onto healing wounds and scars. Further quality studies involving human subjects are needed for topical, natural preparations for scars, so in the meantime, encourage your patients to not waste their time or money on other natural products out there that claim to improve the look of their scars."

Read the full article here

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Silicone Gel Side Effects

As far as I know silicone scar gels have no side effects. The department of Pharmacy, the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine (Universiti Kebangsaan) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have conducted a placebo-controlled research which concluded that no side effects caused by the silicone gel were noted.
* I'm mostly talking about silicone gel sheets but this report is about silicone gel. The liquid version of silicon scar gel like Kelo-cote or Zeraderm.


The research also showed that the wounds treated with silicone gel significantly scored better on pigmentation, vascularity, height, pain and itchiness.
Check the abstract of this research report for more info.

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