Rosacea – Suffering Redness and Flushing Face?
If you’ve developed periods of red, itchy facial skin, you might be wondering if you have rosacea. The keys to getting on top of rosacea are early clinical diagnosis, using the right skin care products and ensuring a healthy gut biome. Let’s first understand what to look out for.
What is it?
Rosacea is a progressive, chronic skin disorder. While it can come and go, it can also become permanent. Getting onto treatment for it early gives the best chance of avoiding this.
What are the symptoms?
The main symptom is frequent flushing of facial skin. The symptoms can develop and worsen over time, with the neck, chest, scalp and ears sometimes affected too. Sensitive skin may develop first, so you might notice skin products stinging, burning or making your skin red. As flushing becomes more constant, blood vessels become more visible on the cheeks. These can get more visible over time, along with swollen cheeks, thickening of the skin around the nose, acne and itchy eyes. Cheerful, huh?
What are the causes?
These are not well understood yet. However, we do know that rosacea affects women more than men, and usually women over 30. Women of English or Irish descent are more commonly – but not exclusively – affected.
What are the triggers?
Rosacea flares up, and we do know a bit about potential triggers. If you have rosacea, it’s good to know what your specific triggers are. A good start would be to avoid the things on this list:
1. Stress (not always easy)
2. Irritating skincare products (especially scrubs and products that involve massaging the skin)
3. Alcohol, spicy foods, caffeine and hot drinks, as they all dilate blood vessels
4. Exercising in a warm or hot room
5. Temperature extremes – indoors or outdoors
What else can I do?
1. Early, clinical diagnosis is definitely the first step.
2. Avoid the triggers in the list above – or the particular triggers you can identify for yourself.
3. Nurture your skin with a simple daily skincare routine, using:
– non-irritating skincare products – chirally correct and chemical free
– a cleanser that restores epidermal health
– antioxidants to combat free radicals (inflammation)
– growth factors, peptides and stem cells
– a chemical-free zinc-based sunblock – every day
– topical vitamin A
A note about vitamin A
Vitamin A won’t irritate your skin and it’s able to penetrate, treat and thicken the deeper layers. As a result, blood vessels become less visible. Vitamin A also stimulates new, healthy and stronger blood vessels in our skin, which reduces inflammation. And it reduces excess oil production, which means fewer pimples!
The good news:
Using the right skincare products and ensuring a healthy gut biome can reverse the symptoms and even gradually eliminate rosacea, so do get onto it early.
If you have more questions or need more info leave a comment below or give me a call on 0418 283 778.