If you woke up one morning and looked in the mirror only to find your face flushed with red, you may have rosacea. Although there are a number of products available to alleviate your rosacea symptoms, there are a number of things you can do to help keep your rosacea under control.

What is Rosacea?

I never knew much about rosacea until I talked to a couple of friends. One is a 40 year old woman who I thought just had a sun burn. The other, a good buddy who I thought was suffering from high blood pressure and would have a heart attack right in front of me some day, also had a red swollen nose. He looked like W.C. Fields, a film actor going way back to the 1920′s. W.C. fields famous bloated red nose caused him to struggle his whole life with rosacea.

Anyway, rosacea is a relatively common yet chronic skin condition characterized by the redness of the facial skin which is sometimes accompanied by pimples. If you’re lucky only your cheeks or forehead will be affected. I say lucky because the larger the area on your body affected by rosacea, the more expensive will your treatments get and the more time it will take to keep your rosacea under control.
Not wanting to make matters worse, but if left untreated Rosacea can get even worse than it really needs to be. Although treatment options are available, rosacea is still not understood very well but progress is being made. As long as it does not affect your eyes, as would be the case for ocular rosacea, the redness of your skin is a relatively harmless condition that seems to affect more women than men.

Watch this video where Brady Barrows of The Rosaceans talks about rosacea and can not only explain it, but will give you some great tips on how to deal with it.

Rosacea is estimated to affect more than 16 million Americans and a good number of Canadians as well. Yet, with all the people that have rosacea, many of them still don’t know it. As a matter of fact, a Gallup survey revealed that 78 percent of the people living in the United States who have rosacea not only have never heard of rosacea but they don’t  know how to to recognize it, or how to deal with it if they do have it.

The bad news is that currently there is no cure for rosacea; at least not yet. The good news is that you can treat your rosacea skin condition. There is a myriad of rosacea products on the market whether they be medicine prescribed by your doctor or natural rosacea remedies to help you keep your rosacea under control. Believe it or not, one of the best ways you can use to help treat rosacea is to start making some healthy lifestyle changes.

Although rosacea seems to affect Caucasians between the ages of 30 and 60, other ethnicities also are vulnerable. If you found yourself suffering from this skin condition, you may have noticed how mildly it started; first with cheeks that seem to glow red, then progressing to your nose, chin, forehead, neck, and other parts of your body.

Rosacea is a progressive disease and can get much worse if not treated. The sooner you treat it while your condition is still mild, the more effective the treatment will be. If left untreated, your rosacea skin condition can cause bumps and as stated above, pimples can also develop which will only exacerbate the rosacea.

The National Rosacea Society (NRS) recommends several actions to keep your rosacea at bay in their “Understanding Rosacea Guide“:

1. Always protect your face from the sun, however I am a strong advocate of at least 10 minutes of sun exposure every day.
2. Stay inside, in air-conditioning cool, on hot and humid days.
3. If you must be outside when it’s hot, be prepared with cold drinks and do not over-exert yourself. Chew on ice chips to lower facial temperature and/or continuously spray your face with cool water.
4. In the cold weather, cover your face with a scarf.
5. In the winter, use a moisturizer daily.
6. Take steps to reduce stress.
7. Take care of yourself by eating healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.
8. Get plenty of exercise.
9. Get getting lots of sleep.
10. Do not drink too much caffeine.
11. When feeling overwhelmed or stressed, try deep-breathing exercises, use visualization techniques, stretch out and relax all your muscles.
12. Eating (and drinking) right for rosacea suffers means avoiding hot soup or drinks, spicy foods, and alcohol.
13. Other foods that you might want to avoid if you notice flare-ups after consumption include cheese, sour cream, yogurt, citrus fruit, liver, chocolate, vanilla, soy sauce, yeast extract, vinegar, eggplant, avocados, spinach, broad-leafed beans and pods, and foods high in histamine or niacin.
14. While exercise is a good thing overall, if you suffer from rosacea, you might be better off toning it down a bit, and do not get too overheated.
15. In facial cleansers or moisturizers, avoid all ingredients that sting, burn, or cause redness. Some of the main culprits include alcohol, witch hazel, menthol, peppermint, eucalyptus oil or clove oil.

Of all the above tips, my favorite is on eating healthy foods like fruits with high antioxidant value in them. Although you may have to watch the type of fruit you eat, foods with lots of antioxidants in them help to fight free radicals in your system and help to improve your immune system.

Hopefully this article has been helpful in your understanding of what rosacea is and how you can treat it. Remember to consult a doctor or dermatologist before trying and medication or treatment for this condition.

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Resources:

What is Rosacea? by the U.S. Library of Medicine

American Academy of Dermatology

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