What Causes Skin Moles?

Skin moles are growths on the skin, often round or oval-shaped with a dark color. The color may however vary to different shades. Some skin moles are flat while others are a bit raised from the skin.
A skin mole is caused by the melanocyte cells in the skin. These cells produce melanin and are responsible for the color of the skin, eyes and hair. It is formed when melanocyte cells do not spread thought the skin but grow in clusters.
Usually melanocyte cells grow normally and so the growth is usually benign. However in certain cases the melanocye cells may start to grow in an abnormal way, which may result in melanoma, a cancer of the skin.
Skin moles are very common. Most of them are present at birth while others appear as the person grows older. Some may also disappear with age. Their main causes depend mainly on:
- Heredity
- Exposure to sunlight
- Hormonal changes
- Age
They may become darker.
The principle reason for this is too much exposure to sunlight. Heavy exposure to sunlight during childhood and the teenage years highly increases the chances of developing new skin moles or that current ones increase in size. Sun beds and tanning saloons can also increase their growth.
Our genes determine many factors. If your parents have plenty of skin moles, probably you will have a lot too. Further more a history of skin cancer in your family also increases the risk that a mole may grow or develops into a cancerous growth.
Hormonal changes also make them to grow or new ones to appear. This may more commonly happen during pregnancy, the menopausal stage and during teenage years.
Generally as we get older, some tend to disappear.

How Do You Get Warts?

You can get warts by being infected by the human papilloma virus or HPV. A wart is in reality a non-cancerous growth caused by an infection by this type of virus.
There are many strains of the human papilloma virus and some of these types cause different type of warts. This virus is contagious and it can enter into your body from small cuts or scratches on your skin as well as by other ways.
There are many ways where you can get warts by being contaminated by HPV. In fact you can get them by:
• Direct contact with a wart of another person
• Direct contact with another person who is a carrier of the virus
• Using object that has been touched by another person that has the virus
• Sexual activity
• Frequenting certain places where the HPV dwells
Direct contact with the wart of another person may transfer the virus to your body. This is more frequent in children and adolescents than in adults. While children are playing football or other sports that require physical contact it is quite easy that they pass the virus by unconsciously touching the warts of other individuals.
It is also important to be aware that an individual may have the virus even if no type of growth has developed. This is because the virus not always develops into any type of growth. So an individual may transmit the virus without having developed any growth himself. However the individual that has been contaminated may develop the wart.
You can get warts by touching objects that had been touched by other individuals that carry the virus. This includes such objects as towels and shoes.
Some strains of this virus are responsible for genital warts. This strain may be transmitted during sexual activity.
The HPV can be found in many places and so you can get it from those places as well. Viruses have a tendency to remain dormant but alive for several months or even years when they are outside the body. They may start to multiply and increase their activity when they are in a body.
The human papilloma virus can be found in moist and warm places. It may lie on the floors of swimming pools, bathrooms, showers, gyms and locker rooms. So walking bare footed in these places increases the chances that you can get the virus through a small cut or scratch in you feet or other parts of your body.
If you are contaminated with the virus you can contaminate other areas of you body as well. This occurs by scratching your wart and touching other areas of your body. Children are particular known to have this type of habits.