From: dp@NOSPAMii.net (David Pascoe)
Newsgroups: alt.skincare.acne,alt.support.skin-diseases,alt.skincare,sci.med,sci.answers,alt.answers,news.answers,alt.med.vision,sci.med.vision
Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
Subject: Rosacea Frequently Asked Questions v1.12
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 14:10:32 GMT
Expires: Wed, 31 October 2001 00:00:00 GMT
Message-ID: <3bb33305.1232797@news.m.iinet.net.au>
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NNTP-Posting-Host: 203.59.160.94
Archive-name: medicine/rosacea
Last-modified: 2001/06/16
Version: 1.12
URL: http://rosacea.ii.net/faq.txt
Maintainer: David Pascoe <dp@ii.net>
CVS Version: $Id: faq.txt,v 1.12 2001/06/22 13:46:48 davidp Exp $
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Disclaimer: the following information is a guide only. Self diagnosis is a
Questions is a simple guide to rosacea, and a pointer to more information.
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Rosacea (said rose-ay-shah) is a progressive vascular disorder that
affects the facial skin and eyes.
The most common symptoms include facial redness across the nose, cheeks,
chin and forehead, visibly damaged blood vessels, facial swelling and
burning sensations, and small red inflammatory papules and pustules.
Rosacea develops gradually as mild episodes of facial blushing or flushing
Ocular rosacea can affect both the eye surface and eyelid. Symptoms can
nclude foreign body sensations, sensitivity of the eye surface, burning
and loss of eyelashes.
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Some rosacea sufferers have a significant acne component in their symptoms
of rosacea are leaking immune cells that are causing inflammation, whereas
n acne vulgaris, papules and pustules can be more folicular in origin.
Rosacea will probably have an underlying redness that is related to
flushing and thus looks different to acne vulgaris.
The treatment for rosacea and acne vulgaris can be somewhat similar, but
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Seborrheic Dermatitis and Rosacea are closely related, they both involve
nflammation of the oil glands. Rosacea also involves a vascular component
causing flushing and broken blood vessels.
Seborrheic Dermatitis may involve flaking, burning and occasionally
tching, and may also be found on the scalp, ears and torso. It does not
usually involve red bumps as in Rosacea.
Just to confuse things further, The two conditions are often seen
together.
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From "Beating Rosacea, Vascular, Ocular and Acne Forms", by Geoffrey Nase
"Rosacea is primarily a disorder of the facial blood vessels. Experts from
across the world agree that vascular abnormalities are central to all
To paraphrase further: Rosacea blood vessels undergo changes in function
and become hyper-responsive to internal and external stimuli. These
changes are ultimately responsible for the progression of all rosacea
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"Rosacea normally progresses in the same generalised fashion, frequent
and structural damage."
Rosacea experts talk about rosacea symptoms appearing in 4 stages. Over
time rosacea can progress from one stage to the next.
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Dr. Nase talks about 4 stages, called Pre-Rosacea, Mild Rosacea, Moderate
Rosacea and Severe Rosacea.
more stimuli, open wider and stay open for longer periods of time compared
to normal persons. No visible damage can normally be seen.
Mild Rosacea: begins when the facial redness induced by flushing persists
for an abnormal length of time - usually 1/2 an hour or more after a
trigger. Those who have frequent pre-rosacea flushing are highly
Moderate Rosacea: as facial flushing becomes more frequent and intense,
vascular damage occurs. This can result in long lasting redness, swelling
and inflammatory papules and pustules. Telangiectasia may be noticed in
the areas where flushing is worst.
Severe Rosacaea: characterised by intense bouts of facial flushing,
nflammatory papules, pustules and nodules may be present. Some experience
a bulbous enlargement of the nose, known as rhinophyma.
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The best answer is "by your registered health professional". There are some
medications available that control the redness and reduce the number of
Current run of the mill treatment might include oral antibiotics and
topical metronidazole. One study showed that the use of topical
metronidazole alone can help to reduce rosacea flare-ups once the rosacea
s brought under control.
For those sufferers that do not benefit from the metronidazole based
treatments, there are many other options. Quite a few treatments options
are often discussed on the rosacea-support email group. Some of their
Experts agree that a gentle cleansing regime is very important. Avoiding
chemicals that aggravate the rosacea, but will clean and moisturise the
The vitamin A derivate isotretinoin (known as Accutane or Roaccutane),
to treat resistent rosacea.
The mixed light pulse laser - Photoderm is showing promise as a treatment
for the vascular component of rosacea. It works by targetting facial
microvessels that are damaged.
One treatment that has been shown to help some is Rosacea-LTD III. It is
the third generation of topical mineral salt based treatment. The minerals
nformation is available at http://www.rosacea-ltd.com
From a subjective view of the rosacea-support list members it would appear
that one person's treatment does not necessarily suit another, so your
mileage may vary with any recommended treatment. Experiment a little and
find what helps you. Depending on the stage of your rosacea, some
treatments may be aggravating, while for others the same treatment may not
cause problems. Every rosacea patient is unique and needs individual
treatment.
Whatever path you choose, the support of a doctor or dermatologist that is
are happy with your health professional.
Dr. Nase's book will serve as a valuable resource - it contains detailed
and proven current rosacea treatment information.
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your symptoms to a manageable level. There are plenty of treatment options
out there, you may just need to experiment with a few.
cured, check out Geoffrey Nase's before and after photographs at
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There are some pages that are worth visiting. You can find a list of
Directory at
There you will find sections on companies offering treatment products,
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Not exclusively for Rosacea. Perhaps the best 2 to try are
alt.skincare.acne and alt.support.skin-diseases. You can read and post to
these forums using the Google Groups facility at http://groups.google.com
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Yes, see http://rosacea.ii.net/ml.html or
Many interesting and useful discussions have taken place on the mailing
list since it was created in October 1998. There are 2 Doctors on the list
can see the list highlights categorised by treatment, symptoms and more at
There is a Rosacea forum for those who use AOL as their internet company.
The address is aol://5863:126/mB:144806
their bulletin board via the redirect at http://www.clik.to/sympathetics
(This currently leads you to the Yahoo! Group
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There are very few books about Rosacea. In the last year of so there has
been a couple of `self help' books written about rosacea. You can find a
A recently published book by Dr. Geoffrey Nase is destined (we believe) to
become a seminal text on Rosacea. You can read a detailed discussion of
the contents of the book at http://www.drnase.com The book is titled
"Beating Rosacea, Vascular, Ocular and Acne Forms". It is only available
from his web site.
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Yes, you may find a more up to date listing if you check
You can find the official html'ised archived version of this FAQ at
Also, you can get this FAQ via email. The address of the faq server is
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
First, get the directory listing with the `index' command, and then fetch
the latest version of the FAQ with the `send' command. You should include
the commands in the _body_ of the message, the subject will be ignored.
All messages to the mail server should be on one line only, if your email
find retrieving the FAQ difficult.
For example, to get version 1.12 of the FAQ you would send the following
texts in the body of 2 emails (first one to get directory and second, once
you know the filename you want).
ndex usenet-by-group/alt.support.skin-diseases
usenet-by-group/alt.support.skin-diseases/Rosacea_Frequently_Asked_Questions_v1.12
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You may want to check out The National Rosacea Society and the
The National Rosacea Society is a non profit organisation set up to
as conduct surveys about rosacea sufferers. Also they make published
nformation available to sufferers via regular mail. The National Rosacea
Society are an introductory organisation that are a good first point of
contact for information. Their depth and breadth of information that they
make available is something that we hope that they will be able to devote
There is an email support group that you can subscribe to. This email
about 10-40 messages per day. Digest versions are available. To find out
more information about the list, visit http://rosacea.ii.net/ml.html or go
An alternative list archive on the web is also located at
more traditional feel to it, you may prefer to read from this archive.
Rosacea Reading Glossary
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As you read more about Rosacea, you might come across lots of terms that
are new to you. Below is a short list of some of the terms you might come
across.
accutane: a powerful vitman A derivate that was originally prescribed for
blepharitis: inflamation and crusting of the eyelid.
mites that lives in the skin. Some have suggested that this is the cause
of rosacea, but most experts discount this theory. According to Dr Nase,
"This theory has now been disproved. Rosacea expers all agree that this
mite plays no real role in the development or progression of rosacea
(except for the odd pustule).", pg. 110 in Beating Rosacea.
chalazion: a lump on the eyelid that is caused by a clogged duct of one or
more of the meibomian glands on the eyelid.
conjunctivitis: inflammation of the conjunctiva (the thin transparent
lining in the front of the eyeballs and eyelids).
or quality of tears.
fotofacial: a treatment regime pioneered by Dr. Patrick Bitter Jnr., see
edema: swelling
erythema: inflammatory redness of the skin.
ETS: Endoscopic Transthoracic Sympathectomy, major surgery in a surgeon
cuts the major sympathetic nerves that supply the hands, neck and face.
Helicobacter pylori: are bacteria that live in the cell lining of the
that H. Pylori only play a small role in a minor number of rosacea
treatment.
keratitis: infection or inflammation of the cornea.
ketoconozole: the active antifungal ingredient in nizoral, helpful for
metronidazole: a topical treatment for rosacea. Has been found effective
against rosacea. Is the active ingredient in metrogel, metrocream and
metrolotion, rozex and noritate.
meibomitis: inflammation of the oil produicing meibomian glands of the
eye.
ocular: of the eye.
flushing associated with rosacea. a new treatment for rosacea that
s producing some exciting results.
Bitter Snr., see http://www.photofacial.com
lupus: an auto-immune disease that causes inflammation in various parts of
the body such as the skin, joints and kidneys. Skin flushing is an
mportant symptom of lupus.
tchy flaking skin.
telangiectasis: damaged micro blood vessels, often visible on the surface
of the skin.
tetracycline: an antibiotic often prescribed for rosacea.
vascular: of the blood vessels.
" vim:tw=74:et
--
David Pascoe, dp@ii.net, South Perth, Western Australia
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