You may have a condition called Acanthosis Nigricans. This can occur as a consequence of obesity, medications, or a prediabetic condition called insulin resistance. Thus, before treating the symptom, it would be important to determine whether you have the disease. If you are prediabetic a drug called Metformin would be helpful. This would improve the Acanthosis Nigricans and should stave off diabetes for a number of years. Weight loss also usually helps, so if you are overweight, a diet plan would be advised. Some cases are made worse by Nicotinic acid so if you are taking this for acne, or lower triglycerides, it would be important to switch to other medications.Omega 3 fatty acids, fish oil, will improve this problem. Natural omega 3 fatty acids can be found in salmon, mackerel and anchovies. As for topical treatments, Tri-Luma cream applied twice a day will help both with the thickening and discoloration. Otherwise Tretinoin 0.05 cream or Cerave SA Renewing Cream would be good. Retriderm by Biopelle might also be tried. The latter two are other the counter.
