Q. I

Have skin tags on my neck. What causes them and how...

October 28, 1999|By Dr. Allen J. Douma.

Q. I have skin tags on my neck. What causes them and how can I get them off?

A. Although it probably won't make you feel any better, skin tags are quite common and increase as one grows older; most people who live into their 80s develop at least one skin tag.

Skin tags are one of many forms of noncancerous skin growths that are abnormal accumulations of different types of skin cells. This group also includes moles, lumps of fatty material called lipomas, and red or purple discolorations called angiomas. They may be present at birth or develop later.

Skin tags are soft and usually small, but if left to grow for years they can become an inch or more long. They are usually flesh-colored or a little darker. They typically grow on the neck, underarms and groin, but can be found in many other parts of the body as well. Often, they will have a long stalk with a swelling at the end.

They usually don't cause any trouble by becoming infected or ulcerated, nor do they have a greater risk of becoming cancerous. But you may find them unattractive, and clothing or nearby skin may irritate them.

I don't know of any way to prevent them from growing. But they're easily removed by having a health professional cut them off with a scalpel or scissors, or "freeze" them off with liquid nitrogen.

Although skin tags usually are very distinctive in appearance, you may have moles that look a little like skin tags at their early stages. But moles are characterized as having a well-defined border and a single shade of pigment, usually darker than the surrounding skin.

However, some moles have small growths protruding from the skin, even foot-like stems or pedicles similar to what would often be seen with skin tags. These moles are unusual and even more unlikely if you have ordinary moles on other parts of your body.

Like skin tags, moles rarely become infected, ulcerated or cancerous. But, as I hope you already know, a certain type of mole called a melanoma is cancerous and can spread and cause death.

In any event, I suggest, at least the first time, that you have any such skin growth looked at by a doctor. A dermatologist would necessarily have more training and experience in identification and removal of abnormal skin growths. You may want to ask about removing them yourself.

If you do see a dermatologist, you'll find out for sure that your growths are skin tags and not something more serious. Have the doctor teach you to recognize different skin growths--in particular, melanomas.

Update on insomnia: Once taken for granted, chronic insomnia is suddenly getting serious attention from the medical profession, now that quality-of-life issues are increasingly being viewed as equal in importance to length-of-life issues.

Most medical treatment of insomnia today is focused on decreasing symptoms that occur and are reported by a person while awake.

But if the effect of medications wears off in the middle of the night, insomnia may be the only symptom that's reported. This is a major problem for people with Parkinson's disease who are taking medications that last a few hours.

Fortunately, recent studies have shown that a long-acting anti-Parkinson's drug called cabergoline provides significant benefits toward relieving problems with insomnia in people with Parkinson's.

If you have a chronic illness and also experience insomnia on a regular basis, talk with your doctor about the possible need for longer-acting medications.

