Cuts and wounds shouldn't have to mark you for life that's why I've decided to mention the latest methods for old scar removal and preventing new ones.

If you're like most people, you possess some battle scars: eternal mementos of the time you wiped out on your bike at age six, the knee surgery you had in college, a latter run-in with a paring knife. "Any skin damage that's more serious than a simple cut or scrape will leave a scar," states David J. Leffell, M.D., a professor of dermatology and surgery at Yale School of Medicine and the pen behind Total Skin (Hyperion, 2000). Composed mainly of collagen, a protein fiber commonly found in the skin's middle layer, these marks are the body's way of repairing itself.

Fortunately, many scars will fade in time. For those that don't, new interventions like laser therapies can minimize them significantly. But your best bet is prevention. According to Dr. Leffell, treating wounds quickly and properly will go a long way in minimizing the appearance and growth of scars.

After a superficial wound has healed a scar will take its place, forming an unsightly mark that may last a lifetime. The human body was built to sustain a variety of injuries, including penetrating trauma, burn trauma and blunt trauma. All of these incidents set into motion an orderly sequence of events that are involved in the healing response, in which the normal functional tissue (skin) is replaced by connective tissue (scar).

When the skin is wounded a variety of different cells come immediately to the aid of the wounded area and the complex healing process begins. This is the body's natural way of protecting itself from harm. However this innate protective process usually leaves behind scarring evidence.

Dos and Don'ts for Keeping Scars at Bay

DON'T swab wounds with hydrogen peroxide. "The bubbles make it look like something good is happening, but hydrogen peroxide is famous to destroy the new skin cells that immediately begin to grow," says Dr. Leffell.

DO cover a cut. If you don't, healing will be delayed by as much as 50 percent; wounds doesn't need to 'breathe', as some people says. "Moisture avoids the formation of a hard scab, which works as a defense to the formation of new tissue," says dermatologist Bruce Katz, M.D., an associate clinical professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of Juva Skin and Laser Center in New York City. He advises treating the affected area daily with an antimicrobial ointment like Neosporin (which will avoid infection, another impediment to healing) and keeping it protected with a bandage. After 7 days, switch to plain Vaseline petroleum jelly, and keep using it underneath the bandage until new skin appears over the wound.

DON'T treat with vitamin E. No matter what your grandmother may have said to you, vitamin E has been demonstrated in a University of Miami study to impair wound healing. (In addition, one-third of the patients tested also developed an allergic reaction.)

DO keep constant pressure on the wound with special bandages or silicone sheeting pads. According to several studies, coverings like these help to flatten scars-including keloids, scars with hard tissue that grows impetuously over their natural limits. (Though it's not known why, darker-skinned people are more prone to this type of scar.) To try: Curad Scar Therapy Cosmetic Pads, Scar Fx and Syprex Scar Sheets, ReJuveness Pure Silicone Sheeting.

DON'T expose new scars to the sun. Ultraviolet radiation can slow the healing process and, since they stimulate melanocytes (the cells that secrete pigment), can cause dark coloration. When you're outdoors, always use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 15 or higher.

Scars are a part of everyday life. No one is free of having fallen off their bike when they were learning how to ride or having lived their entire life without having to submit themselves to some sort of cut or surgery, or just having knicked themselves will shaving. The problem isn't the scar itself. If you really think about it having gone through life without a single scar might just mean that you haven't lived at all. The problem is scar treatment. So don't be afraid to live just because you may get a "battle wound", treat it, investigate and trust products that aid your skin's natural repair process with safe ingredients.