Skin Tags: Benign?
What are skin tags? Skin tags are soft, benign pieces of hanging skin that can occur anywhere on the body. The most common places are the upper chest; neck; eyelids; and underarms. They can occur anytime in your life, but are most likely to develop in adult years.
What are the factors that lead to skin tags? There are many. To begin, if they run in your family, chances are you will have them too. Being overweight will also cause skin tags for many reasons. Being overweight is usually a sign of high sugar levels and we know that sugar will cause skin tags. Type-2 diabetes, prediabetes and insulin resistance are all associated with skin tags; as are high cholesterol, and the human papilloma virus.
What exactly is insulin resistance? It is when the cells in the body “resist” or don’t respond to what the hormone insulin is trying to do and that is to push sugar into the cells. The result is that sugar builds up in the body and the pancrease becomes exhausted from trying to keep producing more and more insulin. Diabetes follows. Sometimes as few as 3 skin tags will indicate a predisposition to diabetes.
What are the risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes? Those with high blood sugar levels and high cholesterol will likely develop the illnesses. Also, high levels of the C-reactive protein (CRP) will be a factor, resulting in inflammation in the body and often diabetes. An excess of triglycerides will also lead to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It is interesting to note that those without skin tags are less likely to have these conditions.
Skin tags are also common in women who have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). PCOS is not really a gynecological problem. It has more to do with glucose. Here the body has an impaired glucose metabolism and many women with PCOS (65%) are obese. These women suffer from hyperinsulinemia (i.e., too much insulin hormone is produced). This can often result in something as trivial as skin tags, or as serious as diabetes, or polycystic ovarian syndrome.
The best thing for women with PCOS to do to prevent diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or even skin tags is to lose weight gradually.
We now know that skin tags are not as innocent or benign as thought. There is definitely something sinister in something that can be an indication of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or even polycystic ovarian syndrome. Perhaps we need to rethink those tiny pieces of “hanging skin”.
