Rosacea Creams Exposed

A Rosacea Cream Can Change Your Life

To battle the life disrupting chronic skin disorder known as rosacea, a sufferer might turn to a medicinal rosacea cream in order to relieve the symptoms. From a standpoint of discomfort as well as self-consciousness about altered looks, rosacea is not a condition to be easily ignored.

An Overview of Rosacea

Unlike acne, which strikes as much as eighty-five percent of the teenage population and twenty percent of adults, rosacea is a skin condition that affects a much smaller percentage of the population. Still, an estimated fourteen million people are estimated to suffer from it in the United States alone. It is most common in fair-skinned females between the ages of thirty and sixty. Fewer men are affected, but the problem tends to be more severe in males who do suffer from it.

The primary symptom is a continually flushed face accompanied by rash-like bumps, pimples, itchy dry skin, and sometimes visibly damaged blood vessels. Secondary symptoms of rosacea include a continuous runny nose, irritation of the eyes, and sometimes noticeable enlargement of the nose. In severe cases, the face might be covered with pustules and inflamed red papules.

Rosacea is a hereditary disorder, but it can be exacerbated by exposure to sunlight, spicy foods and alcohol, extreme temperatures, and stress. There is no cure among the known rosacea remedies, but some of the symptoms can be treated with antibiotics and rosacea cream.

An Overview of Rosacea Treatments

Antibiotics can be prescribed to reduce an outbreak of papules and pustules, but most systemic antibiotics do not affect the redness or primary symptoms. Oral metranidazole reduces the redness in some cases, but long-term use of antibiotics can cause health concerns like weakened immune system and ensuing susceptibility to infection, a developed resistance to the antibiotic, or side effects directly attributed to the antibiotic.

Most patients need to resort to topical cream for rosacea, which might include topical antibiotics, antifungal agents, and herbal ingredients to sooth the skin. Combined with some judicious changes in lifestyle, rosacea cream proves an effective rosacea treatment in the majority of cases.

Effective Ingredients in Rosacea Cream

An effective rosacea cream necessarily includes active ingredients that reduce inflammation and redness, destroy bacteria and fungus and harmful microbes, and provide active relief to itching and burning dry skin. Ideally, products used on rosacea-affected skin should not include alcohol, which further dries the skin and can sting unbearably when applied to already-afflicted skin. A mild and gentle cleansing oil-free detergent should be used, preferably with soothing herbal components such as chamomile and aloe.

Following the cleanser, a moisturizing rosacea cream should be used, also without oils or alcohol. An ideal cream will soothe the irritations of the skin and reduce redness, as well as building a protective barrier against incursions of bacteria and environmental irritants. Its ingredients might include:

Derivatives of licorice, which act to reduce puffiness and inflamation and soothe the sensations of burning and itching.

Horse chestnut, which works to erase the thin red lines on the face.

Natural moisturizers, which may include squalene and hyaluronic acid.

White or green tea, which contains antioxidants that help skin cells defend themselves against damage, and even reconstruct disrupted cell membranes.

Topical corticosteroids to reduce inflammation.

Tea tree oil, which has antiseptic properties to kill bacteria and fungus.

These listed ingredients are just some of the possible substances that can be effective components of an efficacious rosacea cream. Any given cream might have additional active ingredients that are not listed here, and may not include all of these suggested items; the list is intended only as an example of the types of active agents that can effectively combat rosacea symptoms.

Lifestyle Adjustments: Apply With Rosacea Cream

In addition to regularly applying rosacea cream to the affected areas, a wise patient will also apply some alterations to lifestyle. Irritants and aggravating factors should be eliminated and abstained from as much as possible. Any environmental or physical circumstance that exacerbates a rosacea breakout should be noted and avoided.

One of the more difficult conditions to avoid is the occurrence of stress, either psychological or physiological. Stress may be reduced by the practice of meditation or other stress reduction techniques, but it is often impossible to entirely avoid circumstances that cause stress. To whatever extent this is possible, however, it should be attempted. Perhaps a different job might be sought if the current situation is a great source of stress, and perhaps the company of stress-inducing people can be avoided as well. If a person recognizes that stress causes a measurable harm to their health, they may feel justified in taking stress-reduction steps that other people might view as being unnecessary in their own cases. It is worth noting, however, that stress can cause damage to any person’s health, and abatement of its causes can be beneficial to the overall wellness of any person.

More easily avoided is exposure to food and drink that exacerbates the condition. It is common for spicy foods, caffeine, and alcohol to be aggravating factors for rosacea, so a sufferer of the condition would be well advised to cut out spicy foods, coffee and soda, and adult beverages. Each individual might determine a causative link between their rosacea outbreaks and other foods besides those listed here. If that seems to be the case, the connection can be tested by abstaining from that food, paying close attention to the condition of the skin, and then indulging in the food again to see what changes might occur. If there seems to be a positive link, the patient should not doubt their own observations even if the food in question is not mentioned as a common irritant for rosacea.

Exposure to sunlight or to extreme hot or cold will cause problems for most rosacea patients. Judicious use of sunscreen and shade can address the issue, along with a concerted effort to keep to comfortable temperatures.

These changes, combined with the regular daily use of rosacea cream, should help a rosacea sufferer to measurably reduce symptoms.