Treatment for Rosacea

Rosacea is a prevalent chronic skin disorder that affects at least 14 million North Americans. Unfortunately it is 3 times more likely to affect women and has also been found to be more prevalent in Caucasians particularly of northwestern European descent from the age of 30 to 60.

If you’re reading this (and I assume you are!) its probably because you’re a sufferer yourself and you’re seeking a treatment for rosacea.

The issue of long term treatment for rosacea is certainly a much debated topic with a majority of medical practitioners certain it is attainable while a smaller camp claim it is not possible. Some believe that the best you can do is to suppress the symptoms of rosacea. We will explore both sides of the issue in this article, but first, what exactly is rosacea?

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While rosacea is technically not acne, it is often confused with it due to its negative pervasive effect on skin and is quite often accompanied by acne symptoms such as pimples and nodules.

Regardless of what it s called however, it is important to recognize its symptoms. Rosacea is typically characterized by facial redness or erythema and also red patches, bumps, pimples and burst capillaries on the skin. People with rosacea also notice a tendency of their skin to “blush” regularly. In severe cases, pustules and nodules can form and worse, a lobulated red nose may develop.

It must be mentioned however, that rosacea, apart from its obvious cosmetics downsides is completely harmless, unless it starts affecting the eyes.

Now that we understand the symptoms, its time to move on to the treatment for rosacea available. One unanimously accepted view is that the first step to recovery is to avoid the triggers for it. Listed here are the most common triggers : exposure to temperature extremes, direct exposure to sunlight, emotional stress, spicy foods, foods like aged cheese, yoghurt and cured pork products (due to high histamine levels), alcoholic beverages, caffeine containing beverages (coffee, coke, energy drinks) and specific medicines.

Part of the treatment for rosacea is to understand your specific triggers, and this is done by keeping a personal journal to note which of the items listed here aggravate your symptoms. In all or most cases of mild rosacea, avoidance of these triggers may be sufficient to significantly improve conditions.

Often, the next phase of the treatment for rosacea is the use of oral or topical antibiotics to suppress or control the symptoms. However, this approach has many disadvantages, including the building of medicine dependencies, allergic reactions as well as worsening of conditions in a few cases. Oral tetracyclines (a form of antibiotic) are often prescribed to control rosacea symptoms but note that it is not a permanent treatment for rosacea.

Your dermatologist needs to be consulted because some users of this drug have been found to  suffer recurrence and exhibit the exact same symptoms once the treatment is over. Additionally, prolonged doses of tetracyclines has been known to cause serious liver damage in the long run.

Click here to visit the Best Guide on Treatment for Rosacea

Topical medicines such as metronidazole (an antibiotic) is an effective method to control the symptoms, but in most cases takes a several weeks or months before the positive effects take place. A word of warning however, benzoyl peroxide creams are NOT the same thing, and can in some cases make conditions worse.

Also, many homemade therapy recipes on the internet claiming to be treatment for rosacea will not work for the same way they may work with other acne symptoms. In any case, antibiotic creams must be discontinued if they aggravate the symptoms.

In the most severe of cases, a recommended treatment for rosacea is the use of Vascular Lasers to treat damaged face capillaries, extreme cases of redness and stubborn rednesss. Use of resurfacing lasers are also effective for treatment of rhinophyma, or the condition also known as “potato nose”.

While effective, these methods are typically very expensive to administer and should only be considered for the most severe of rosacea cases. They often require multiple visits to complete, and even then there is no firm guarantee that there will be no recurrence of symptoms.

Yet, as mentioned earlier, many medical practitioners hold firm to the belief that finding treatment for rosacea is actually a two-pronged approach – dealing with its symptoms (as discussed above) while simultaneously seeking to restore the imbalance in the human body. This imbalance may be due to nutritional deficiencies, toxicity or poor general health practices. Mike Walden is one such medical practitioner. In his book he addresses the root causes of many skin conditions and approaches the treatment of such from a holistic point of view.

In short he views the curing of various skin conditions as a combination of steps. These include restoring a working balance in your own body by giving it the best nutrition, aiding its natural restorative/healing process and slowing (eventually halting) internal processes that conspire in aggravating rosacea symptoms. If a sufferer is serious about seeking treatment for rosacea that will result in complete curing, there are no shortcuts. Realistically this is the only true permanent treatment for rosacea.

If only the symptoms are treated without addressing the root cause, it will prove to be a frustrating and possibly expensive trip. As mentioned earlier, while rosacea isn’t technically acne, the steps you take of eliminating it completely are very similar.

Click here to visit Mike Walden’s Recommended Guide to Rosacea-free skin