My middle sister has Rosacea, and is looking for helpful tips…any thoughts?
I use Clinique Redness face wash and face cream and it has helped reduce the number of flares dramatically. I’m not as red and I flush much less easily. Is her Rosacea the acne type or just the redness/broken capillary type? Acne type is more common in men and tends to be more disfiguring and severe. I avoid my triggers: alcohol is the biggest one but direct sunlight on my face will trigger it too. Strong emotion does it as well. The Clinique products have helped hugely.
Has she seen a dermatologist? And is she sure it’s rosacea, and not seborrheic dermatitis? The two are often confused. For S.D., the best treatment is Ketoconazole cream; she’ll need a Rx for it.
I have used Neutrogena Oil-Free Acne Wash Redness Soothing Facial Cleanser (the green one) for several years. It works well and it’s inexpensive.
Advice is best suited to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I had great luck with simply a moisturizer/ sunblock. I was using the Mary Kay Men stuff, but I’ve run out and I’m auditioning a Neutrogena Men’s product that I can get at the grocery store.
I have the acne type rosacea. I’m still trying to figure out my triggers, but I think stress is the biggie.
My husband has been struggling with rosacea for several years now. He’s tried all of the different prescriptions and run through every “mild” soap, moisturizer, and sunblock in the drug store. Prescriptions didn’t help. He recently washed his face with Kiss My Face soap, and got a suppurating rash that took almost two weeks to go away. He’s found that he can clean his face with plain, unscented cold-process soap, the kind he buys from indie soapmakers on Etsy, and he can use Aveeno moisturizer/sunblock. His face still turns burn-red in the sun, but, well, it’s not as bad as not wearing sunblock.
His takeaway bit of wisdom is that rosacea is different for everybody. Some people flush when they have a little wine, and that gets called rosacea. Some get a little red in the winter, and that gets called rosacea. Some people, like him, are in constant pain and can’t find relief, only minimize the irritants.
Baking soda. Mom had a very bad case, lots of redness all over her face and break outs. It took some very strong antibiotics to calm it down just a bit, and they were wrecking hell on her stomach. Since then she stopped taking anything and regularly washes her face with a mix of baking soda and cetaphil face wash and it has completely cleared up. I had a much milder case and it has also helped tremendously. Some people prefer to just drink it mixed with water, we found it a lot more effective to go with the face wash method.
In addition to prescriptions to try, there is current thinking that some (if not most/all) of rosacea is caused by the demodex mite. (or bacteria carried by the mite…the exact cause is up for debate currently)
The current treatment for demodex is tea tree oil, so might be worth trying a tea tree oil facial cleanser.
I thinks that’s more relevant to Type II rosacea, which the acne type. I’d be surprised if Type I, which is primarily flushing/broken capillaries would be due to an bacterial infection or mite. Antimicrobial treatments seem less effective for Type I, because of that. Understanding what type she has can inform what treatment options might work best for the OPs sister.
I’ve had the ocular type as well. which is really uncomfortable. It happens if i don’t keep my flares under control.
I struggled with Rosacea for years. What I found worked for me was daily tetracycline. It cleaned it right up.
Unfortunately, tetracycline no longer seems to be available in the US. Nobody makes it here any more. My Dermatologist prescribed doxycycline instead. It seems to work ok, though not as good as tetracycline.
Tetracycline IS still available thru Canadian drugstores, if you want to go that route.
J.