You know what I really don't get? What causes erythema to last so long? I mean, are these blood vessels (the problem ones) new ones created solely for the purpose of healing the area... or were they always there but have now just been pushed near the surface so speed up the healing? And if I were to let them disappear naturally (fuck that - waited 2 years already) would they like... dissolve? disperse? retract into the body? what?
The blood vessels are engorged (vasodilation).
It's your body's way of responding to some kind of trauma so yes it's
a healing response/process. The body responds to the trauma by widening the
blood vessels and sending extra blood to the area and there it stays until the
healing is done.
As to why you have them so long, good question. I would say it's because
your body is simply "overreacting" to the laser treatments or it could
be because you have an exceptionally strong healing response.
The main purpose of the response is to prevent scarring and infection, the extra blood is meant
to send extra nutrients to the area and speed healing. However it is *supposed*
to only last a few months.
In the picture below, the top one is the engorged blood vessel, the second one is how it
would look normally when the healing is done (normal skin tone) In the third one the skin
would look slightly paler since there is less blood flow then normal, cold air or water can cause
You seem to be stuck in the first stage my friend.
so it goes:
1. skin is traumatized in some way, bruised, cut, scraped, squeezed, infection, laser etc
2. body widens blood vessels in that area so it can send more blood for increased nutrients and healing (your body doesn't really know the extent of the damage, so sometimes it sends much
more help than is needed, kind of a brute force method to prevent scarring and infection.
3. Body finishes healing and increased blood flow backs off, blood vessels shrink down to their
normal size since they no longer need to carry extra blood. Skin tone is now normal again and (hopefully) there is no depressed scarring, (that was your body's main goal to prevent., along with extra white blood cells to fight infections as well).
*The stronger this response is, the less chance you have of scarring and infection. So in a way it
is a good thing! The healthier a person is the longer their red marks will last. (usually)
The question is: How does the body know when to "end" the healing response and go back to normal, is it pre-programmed into our genes? or is it based on external conditions? and is their
a way to artificially tell the body that the healing is done in the case where it gets "stuck"
Edited by bio_nerd, 12 October 2010 - 09:20 PM.