Stretch Marks
and blood vessel on nose

Q. Help! I have recently lost 55 lbs and now am aware of the many stretch marks my being overweight has caused. They are all over my shoulders, breast, and stomach.

I would like to finally show off all my hard dieting but find it hard with all these marks. What can I do to just make them go away?

A. It is not easy to make stretch marks go away. Some prescription topicals are somewhat effective on "new" more red stretch marks, but even these are not 100%.

There are no great lasers that really work to remove stretch marks either. Some UVB based lasers are being used to bring back color to areas of white stretch marks to help make them less visible.

Q. Is it possible to have a broken blood vessel on your nose? I have a small red spot almost on the tip of my nose- it does not hurt and is not a pimple.

However, it's been there for almost a year now and I'm tired of waiting for it to go away. What could this be and how do I get rid of it?? Please help!

A. It could be an "angioma" which is a medical term for a broken blood vessel which can be easily treated.

But I would highly recommend seeing a dermatologist for evaluation because several other types of growth which may be cancerous could mimic this.