About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Alternative medicine
By Mayo Clinic staffMany alternative therapies claim to treat stretch marks, including castor or olive oil, seaweed wraps, or combinations of botanicals, vitamins and fruit acids. There's no evidence that these products work.
If you're pregnant, check with your doctor before using alternative products that claim to treat or prevent stretch marks.
- Elsaie ML, et al. Striae distensae (stretch marks) and different modalities of therapy: An update. Dermatological Surgery. 2009;35:563.
- Papoutsis J, et al. Physiological skin changes induced by pregnancy. In: Gabbe SG, et al. Obstetrics: Normal and Problem Pregnancies. 5th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/199649567-2/0/1528/0.html. Accessed May 4, 2010.
- Osman H, et al. Cocoa butter lotion for prevention of striae gravidarum: A double-blind, randomised and placebo-controlled trial. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. 2008;115:1138.
- Morelli JG. Diseases of the dermis. In: Kliegman RM, et al. Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. 18th ed. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders Elsevier; 2007. http://www.mdconsult.com/das/book/body/199649567-5/0/1608/0.html. Accessed May 4, 2010.
- Karen JK, et al. Skin changes and diseases in pregnancy. In: Wolf K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine. 7th ed. New York, N.Y,: McGraw-Hill Medical; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aid=2954133. Accessed May 4, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on