Imagine living your life having to constantly manage a skin condition. Warm weather can cause your skin to be itchy, red, and swollen, while cold weather can cause dryness, tightening, and discomfort.
People who struggle with rosacea live in a constant loop of skincare and dealing with redness outbreaks. Something as simple as a stressful day can cause a rosacea breakout because the body doesn’t work as efficiently as normal when it’s under stress.
What Is Rosacea?
Rosacea is a skin condition that doesn’t have a known cause or cure. It affects approximately 16 million people across the country and commonly begins around the age of 30. It affects women more than men and is most common in people with fair skin.
The normal rosacea cycle includes flare-ups, with redness on the cheeks, chin, forehead and/or nose, followed by periods of remission. It can also affect other parts of the body, like the ears, chest, or neck. While symptoms may come and go without getting better or worse over time, rosacea that goes untreated for a long time could lead to more serious skin conditions, such as eye irritation or visible blood vessels. Other symptoms of rosacea include:
- Bumps and pimples that may become painful
- Burning or stinging skin
- Chronic redness (same appearance as sunburn)
- Flushing
- Raised patches of skin
- Swelling
Health Risks of Rosacea
In addition to these symptoms, there are a number of health risks to consider when dealing with specific types of the condition. Certain types of rosacea are more risky than others. For example, erythematotelangiectatic rosacea is mainly aesthetic, with flushing and redness of the face.
Ocular rosacea, though, can cause extreme eye irritation, leading to burning or swelling, sometimes even causing damage to the cornea or loss of vision. Even the less extreme versions of rosacea can be uncomfortable, causing itchy, irritated skin.
Rosacea can also be damaging to confidence. Women with rosacea may not want to wear makeup, even though it would counteract the redness, because foundation can cause more skin irritation and trigger flare-ups. Creating an even skin tone is much more difficult, even impossible, for a person with rosacea, which can make them self-conscious of their appearance.
Since there isn’t one tried-and-true cure for rosacea, many people will try out offbeat or unorthodox treatments to reduce redness and flare-ups. Some of them are surprisingly effective at managing the condition, while others can be risky.
Treatment Options for Rosacea
There isn’t a cure for rosacea yet, but there are different treatments that can manage flare-ups and keep rosacea from worsening:
- Avoiding Triggers: If you’ve had rosacea for a while, you may know what some of the triggers are, like extreme heat, spicy foods, alcohol, or certain skincare products. Avoiding them is the best way to keep skin calm.
- Dedicated Skincare Products: As more people share their experiences with rosacea, companies are producing products that specifically target redness. Look for gentle skincare products that are designed to help with rosacea or redness.
- Gentle Skincare: Since harsh products and fabrics can irritate rosacea, it’s best to steer clear of coarse exfoliators, products with alcohol and rough cloths that you might use to dry your skin.
- Healthy Diet: Elimination diets can help with rosacea because they temporarily get rid of common flare-up triggers, like dairy and sugar. Eating a healthy diet is a must overall, and obesity has become such an epidemic in the U.S. that some states are taking legal action to fight it.
- Sunblock: Heat and sun exposure can cause rosacea flare-ups and also worsen your rosacea over time. You don’t have to avoid the sun, but make sure to wear a strong SPF whenever you head outside, even if you’ll only be outside for a little while and even during the fall and winter.
- Tinted Makeup: While it won’t cure or treat rosacea, green-tinted foundation and concealer can help tame the redness if you’re heading out for a special night. Make sure to thoroughly remove makeup before bed, since going to sleep with makeup on can clog pores and worsen redness.
Horse Medicine for Rosacea?
Rosacea can be maddening to treat, especially if nothing seems to provide relief. Some people are using horse medication to treat their rosacea, which is leaving professionals worried. The medicine that’s used to treat parasites in horses contains the active ingredient that’s also found in Soolantra, a gel treatment for rosacea.
Horse medicine is much less expensive, which is why some people are opting for in it place of Soolantra.
According to Insider, “Without insurance, Soolantra typically costs several hundred dollars. And even with insurance, patients can be required to take several other medications, such as the oral antibiotic doxycycline, before their insurance will cover Soolantra (a process known as step therapy).”
Despite the reduced cost, horse medicine is a huge risk — it’s never been tested on humans, so the effects are unknown. In fact, dermatologists in the Insider article speculate that using it could cause an individual to develop irritated skin, have unexpected allergic reactions, or build a resistance to it.
While there are plenty of doctors, pharmaceutical brands and researchers who want to learn more about rosacea, a cure hasn’t been found yet. By spreading awareness about rosacea, the public could encourage health professionals to research further.
Until there’s a tested cure found, it’s best to stick with the treatments that have been proven to be safe — which means saying “no” to untested medicines.
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