What is Rosacea
Rosacea is an inflammatory skin condition that mainly affects the face, it is characterized by redness across the nose, cheeks, chin and forehead and often associated with the appearance of blood vessels becoming more visible on the face (telangiectasia or spider veins).
It effects around 1 in 10 people within the UK mainly fair skinned from ages 30+ and can worsen with age, and although it is more common in women more severe cases are often noted in men.
The symptoms can often make the person feel embarrassed and can lead to social anxiety and depression.
Currently there is no treatment, cream or tablet to cure rosacea but there are different treatments which can help control symptoms.
What causes Rosacea?
The exact cause is unknown but possible causes include problems with a person’s immune, nervous or vascular systems, there may also be a genetic link as it tends to run in families.
Some studies have found that a person with rosacea can have up to 4 times more dermodex mites than someone without this also lead us to believe that this is a contributing factor in developing the condition.
How to Manage Rosacea?
Understanding what causes a “flare up” of rosacea is as important as treating the condition, being able to identify your triggers or stressors and avoid them will help you to maintain and reduce symptoms.
There are certain known triggers which will cause a flare up resulting in increasing redness, burning, itchy and stinging sensation on the skin.
Extremes is Weather – sunlight is a well known trigger not only from the excess heat but also the UV rays which can itself cause skin damage, but with those suffering rosacea who’s skin is already compromised and vulnerable this can have a particularly detrimental effect on the skin. Cold weather can be equally damaging and measures should be taken to protect the skin from both extremes. Wearing an SPF everyday regardless of the weather will protect against damaging UV rays.
Hydration – keeping hydrated is essential in general to maintain good skin health, but especially in rosacea prone skin which tends to be drier and more sensitive. If the skin becomes dehydrated a flare up could occur, moisturising the skin is equally important as drinking to maintain hydrated skin from inside and out.
Diet – this plays a major role in the incidence of flare ups, common triggers include alcohol and spicy foods, although diary, gluten, sugar and fizzy drinks are thought to contribute to the occurrence of flare ups. It may be beneficial to keep a diary and note what you eat and how your skin reacted that may help identify triggers and allow you to avoid them in the future.
Stress – this is a major trigger and for many of us this is something that we will never be able to completely eradicate from our lives, there are ways to help manage our stress and adopting some techniques that allow us to cope better with stress will ultimately have a benefit on our overall skin health.
Adopting a good Skin Regime – this is where we come in at Laser Skin Therapy we offer various treatments and products to help you manage rosacea, whether it’s any of our facial treatments from Circadia by Dr Pugliese the fabulous skin care brand within our clinic or their amazing take home products specifically made to manage and treat rosacea.
We also offer IPL treatments using our medical grade IPL/laser machine from All White Laser, intense pulsed flashes of light are used to help diffuse and reduce redness.
We can offer bespoke treatment packages to suit any clients needs and budget and we are available for skin consultations and advice.