DO you have Facial flushing? Maybe a red glow on your face that is worsened with wine or heat. If you have any embarrassing facial redness read on below!
A study in 2009 conducted in LA and London, found that 20% of the women interviewed had acne rosacea! (By the way, this is a male and female condition).
How do you know if you have it?
The classic features are a facial redness or flushing that may seem to be raised, may have pustules, and may have red spots interspersed over your face.
People may also suffer with burning, dryness, swelling, skin thickening and nodules (later it may make your nose quite bulbulous).
It can be confused with allergies, acne or sensitivities to make up.
This next bit is straight from wikipedia:
A survey by the National Rosacea Society of 1,066 rosacea patients showed which factors affect the most people:[17]
- Sun exposure 81%
- Emotional stress 79%
- Hot weather 75%
- Wind 57%
- Heavy exercise 56%
- Alcohol consumption 52%
- Hot baths 51%
- Cold weather 46%
- Spicy foods 45%
- Humidity 44%
- Indoor heat 41%
- Certain skin-care products 41%
- Heated beverages 36%
- Certain cosmetics 27%
- Medications (specifically stimulants) 15%
- Medical conditions 15%
- Certain fruits 13%
- Marinated meats 10%
- Certain vegetables 9%
- Dairy products 8% thanks wiki.
What Causes it?
The jury has long been deciding the main causes. I have been in the health industry for 25 years and have always known there exists a gut/bacteria connection, but now research is fairly conclusive. This is the latest info.
- a mite called Demodex burrows into the hair follicle and can cause secondary infection with its faeces (not nice I know, but true)
- 88% of people with Rosacea where also shown to have Helicobacter pylori – the bacteria that causes stomach ulcers (ref Szlachcic A. The link between H.pyloir ad rosacea. J Eur Acad Dermatol Venereol. 2002 Jul; 16 (4): 328-33)
- 46% of people with Rosacea have Small Intestinal Bacertial Overgrowth (SIBO) which will give you gut symptoms and results from bacteria migrating from your large bowel into your small bowel.
How to treat it
I would preface here that any treatments natural or orthodox are always best supervised by a health professional. If you want to know a good practitioner who can help you, i recommend called ANTA or Metagenics 1800 777 648 in Australia and they can tell you someone close to where you live.
Not surprisingly great results are achieved by killing the helicobacter pylori and correcting any SIBO. This can be done naturally, with medications or a combination. Diet alone, may not be strong enough as H.pylori is hard to kill.
There is also evidence to suggest an alkaline diet may be of benefit (or add wheat grass or spirulina to your diet).
Metagenics (the company above) have launched a facial cream that has anti-bacterial qualities and may help with killing the mite on your face. It’s definitely worth a try.
Once you have killed the offending agent and have things under control, I strongly recommend a probiotic to plant back into your gut and help protect from further out breaks and over growth.
