Rosacea— known as the “curse of the Celts”— is an unattractive but normally harmless condition in which the skin turns red; it has been observed primarily among people indigenous to northwestern Europe and their descendants in other parts of the world.
Because it makes the skin so esthetically unattractive, those who have it naturally wish to do something about it, and so dermatologists have been looking for— and discovering— effective treatments for the condition. Most treatments for rosacea fall under one of four categories— behavior, drugs, natural treatments, and surgery or device-driven therapy.
Of course, my favorite category is the natural one. Natural treatments for rosacea can be very effective and satisfying to the person who has rosacea, and who has acne rosacea.
In the most mild cases of rosacea, behavior modification may be all that is needed. Such modification includes avoiding too much exposure to the sun (strongly recommended) and care of the eyelids (if one often suffers from infection in that part of the body).
More serious cases may be treated with drugs. Physicians usually begin by prescribing tetracycline and topical antibiotics such as doxycycline and minocycline.
If the skin does not show improvement within a reasonable time, isotretinoin— a drug commonly used to treat other skin conditions, such as cancer and acne— may be prescribed. Since rosacea often resumes once the patient stops taking the drugs, treatment may have to be longterm or even lifelong.
Laser surgery is often necessary if the patient has developed erythema (red skin). The walls of capillaries expand and burst due to the heat that results from the absorption of the light by hemoglobin, and as a result the body’s defense mechanism absorbs them. If phymatous rosacea has produced an excess of tissue, a carbon dioxide laser may be employed.
A pulsed light called PhotoDerm has proven even more effective than lasers in treating “blush” blood vessels: the patient often improves immediately, whereas lasers may need to be applied periodically.
Ultimate Light™ PhotoDerm has been used in cases of itching or burning, and such ointment creams as Protopic and Elidel may work in rosacea cases attributable to steroids.
Light therapy has been shown to be quite beneficial in the treatment of rosacea in some people, and it also has been effective in the treatment of acne, such as with blue light acne therapy, a burgeoning market for acne treatment which can also be performed at home with home devices. Incidentally, ex- President Clinton has rosacea. So does Mariah Carey.
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