So They Tell Me I Have Rosacea
Rosacea? What the hell is it? That’s the question I was left asking myself in April of last year (fucking 2020, I swear). I always thought rosacea meant having flushed red cheeks. Since that wasn’t my experience, I was confused when the dermatologist told me I had it. I left the doctor’s office with my head spinning. I thought to myself, “I’ve always had great skin. It must be a misdiagnosis.” At first, I was really mad because let’s be real, this is my face. It’s the first thing people see. And it’s the first thing I see when I look in the mirror. Rosacea is a chronic skin condition. Chronic means it never goes away so that was a hard pill to swallow for me. Once I got home, I took some deep breaths to clear my head and started some very thorough research. I quickly learned there are 4 very different subtypes. When I read subtype 2, my heart sank. It was so familiar. Not a misdiagnosis after all. They insisted there were ways to control the breakouts with subtype 2 and this put me a (a tiny bit) at ease. And you know what, I found that to be absolutely true. Maybe you have rosacea or are curious about it. Or maybe something weird is going on with your skin and you have no idea what it is. I wrote this for you.
In November 2019, I started to get small bumps around the eye area. They appeared at no particular time and typically didn’t stay longer than 2-3 days. I just thought it was a weird rash and would eventually go away. It did go away . . . but it would come back. It started to slowly spread outward from the eye area to other random spots on my face. One here and one there, but still mostly around my eyes. They looked like small whitehead pimples, but they didn’t pop like them (I know you’re not supposed to pop pimples, but sometimes I can’t help myself). They popped like a bubble. Nothing came out. So weird.
I did a telehealth visit with my dermatologist and she told me it looked like “ocular dermatitis”. I later learned this is the first sign that you may later develop rosacea. She prescribed me a cream and a small dose of an doxycycline—as an anti-inflammatory. I looked at photos online and although it didn’t look like mine, I told myself that I must have a mild case. I started the cream first and it didn’t seem helpful. When I added in the doxy, it totally knocked it out. After 2 months, I stopped taking it because I don’t like taking prescriptions if I can help it. And lemme tell you what, after it got out of my system, those bumps came back . . . ALL OVER MY ENTIRE FACE. It was the worst breakout I’ve ever had in my life. I was freaking out.
I called to make an appointment and even though my regular doctor was out, I begged to see someone else. This is when they gave me the diagnosis of Rosacea. I got back on the low dose of doxycycline as well as a topical cream called Soolantra to kill off the mites. Yeah, you heard that right. Face mites. I was more disturbed than you are right now. I only took the doxy for 3 months after that, but stayed on the cream for much longer. I didn’t see these as forever meditations—more like “quick fixes”. They only address the symptoms, not the underlying cause. It was important for me to figure out how to manage it without medication.
Here’s what I know now about mine:
It usually affects women between 30 and 50—but there are outliers.
I must wash my face twice a day—morning and night. No matter what.
Subtype 2 is linked to an overpopulation of demodex mites. Yeah, fucking gross, I know. But apparently, everyone has them on their face in small quantities (google it and ruin your day). They are a natural part of the human microbiome and harmless UNLESS they start to increase in numbers. If they do, it can cause a rosacea flare up.
Just like with many other conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune disorders, and gout just to name a few), rosacea is triggered by inflammation. What you eat (your diet) and what you put on your skin can drastically reduce inflammation in the body which can help reduce flare ups.
Things in a diet that might trigger a flare up: SUGAR, red wine, processed foods, and fried foods. This doesn’t mean I can’t have them, it just needs to be in moderation. Personally, I need to stay away from having too much of these anyway so it’s actually helped me.
Certain cosmetics or skin care products can trigger it as well. The list of ingredients is quite large and could take a while to figure out which ones directly affect you. Have you ever looked at what’s in your skincare? There are lots of things you can’t pronounce or identify. For me, that’s unacceptable because what you put on your body absorbs INTO your body. I decided to go the all natural and clean route to bypass as many of them as I could. I even switched over a lot of my makeup. I was already heading in this direction so this just further confirmed my decision. I currently only use skin care from 2 companies—Emogene and Co. (out of Nashville) and Pai (out of London). I’ve included images at the bottom of the blog and the websites below this paragraph. The only exceptions are a few masks and my eye cream—which I’m currently looking to replace.
www.emogeneandco.com
www.paiskincare.us
More than likely, the health of my gut had an impact as well. The microbiome has connections with many different kinds of skin conditions. A poor diet obviously leads to bad gut health. No matter what you eat, you could still be missing some good bacteria. I started taking a pro-biotic every day. I also turned to apple cider vinegar. Every morning, I mix 1 tablespoon with water and drink it first thing on an empty stomach (I still drink water). I allow it to settle for 15 minutes.
When I see a flare-up emerging, I’m typically not too shocked. It’s usually when I’m splurging a liiiittle too much. Talk about accountability. I’m able to dial it back in and clear it up rather quickly. They usually only last 1 -3 days depending on how fast I catch it. Keep in mind that I have very few flare-ups. I’m able to rein it in so quickly because I take care of my skin, eat real foods, and withhold sugar and processed foods 93% of the time.
There is no cure. This sucks bad and was the hardest part to accept. However, you can manage it. You just have to take care of yourself and your face will thank you. Think about using what nature intended for us to use. Real is always better—with food, skin care, and people 😉
I was pretty sensitive about the whole thing in the beginning. Once I realized it wasn’t going anywhere, I had to fully accept it so I could learn how to live with it. I can only speak from my personal experience, but it’s manageable if you CHOOSE to make and maintain the lifestyle changes. Of course I wish I didn’t have rosacea because it would just make life easier, but there is a positive from getting it. I always look for a positive in every negative situation. It’s allowed me to learn a lot more about how to take care of my skin in general. I get lots of compliments on how great my it looks and I take every one of them to heart. I appreciate that people notice! I sure notice how good it looks and feels and that motivates to keep it up.
I now have a running joke about the mites. As soon as I see the first couple of bumps, I might say something like, “Well, I guess I pissed those little bastards off.” I now think of them as accountability partners. Weird, I know, but it helps me cope. If I start eating like shit, not washing my face, using the wrong products, or drinking too much, they let me know. The way I see it is humans are only supposed to do those things in moderation ANYWAY. My body is now very in tune when I’m off the rails and this is it’s way of showing me. And I’ll tell you what, when my body is speaking to me and sending me messages, I have learned to shut up and listen.
