Can Glycolic Acid Help Rosacea?
Many people today suffer from a skin condition called rosacea. It is a skin condition very similar in appearance to acne, yet it has notable differences. It typically appears as red patches on a persons face, usually someone that has a very light complexion. They may also have pus filled areas that look very similar to pimples as well. This condition actually has no cure, although there are many possible natural treatments for it, one of which is an amino acid called l-Lysine.
Although many people have claimed that this has helped them, scientific proof is yet to appear in a clinical study. There is another theory that glycolic acid might actually help with rosacea. In this article, we will look at the possibility of using glycolic acid as a remedy for this skin condition that so many people possess.
Before we look into the possibility of glycolic acid being a potential cure for rosacea, we need a little more information. As we stated before, rosacea is a skin condition that does not seem to have a reliable cure, and that its appearance seems to be a rash with occasional pustules that appear on the skin. We know that people who suffer from acne will actually use treatments, such as Retin-A, a type of tretinoin, that are actually derived from vitamin A.
This type of skin care product has had high success rates when treating acne. Individuals that have post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, or PIH, will actually have beneficial results using this cream. Since this condition is often the result of, but not limited to, in inflamed acne lesions which have been popped or picked at, Retin-A can actually help reduce the darkened appearance on the person’s skin. This is probably very good news for acne sufferers, especially those that have had several pimples on their face that have left a multitude of scars that they would like to lighten up in appearance.
Unfortunately, a person that has rosacea is not dealing with the aftermath of an acne breakout. They are actually suffering from a rash on their face or skin. Products such as Retin-A actually remove the upper layers of skin gradually, allowing new skin to grow back. If a person has a rash on their face such as with rosacea, it would probably aggravate the condition, not help cure it. In fact, most acne treatments are about drying out your face, reducing the amount of oil that could eventually lead to further breakouts.
Rosacea is an irritation of the skin, and although Retin-A is sometimes prescribed for those with cystic acne, the redness from rosacea is due to the expansion of blood vessels within your face, which is something you cannot fix by removing the cells of your skin.
This segues directly into whether or not glycolic acid would be an effective treatment for rosacea. Glycolic acid is actually a translucent, lose compound which can be derived from beets, grapes and cane sugar. It is used in the manufacturing of pesticides and the dyeing of textiles and leather-based products. In regard to using this on your skin, it is actually an exfoliator, which means it would do something very similar to what Retin-A and salicylic acid would accomplish.
It would remove the upper layer of skin, something that will certainly not benefit those that are currently suffering with rosacea. The redness on your skin might increase due to the fact you are irritating it even more by removing the upper layer. Therefore, the use of glycolic acid to help rosacea sufferers is simply not a viable treatment option at all.
Although there are many people that would like to have a cure for rosacea, it seems to be something that can only be managed. Those that have this condition have found some comfort in reducing their alcohol intake, staying out of the sun, and trying to improve their lives by reducing the stress they are experiencing. Since this condition is, in part, related to the expansion of blood vessels beneath your skin, getting rid of the redness simply cannot happen by irritating the skin even more.
Although there are many people that swear that l-Lysine, the essential amino acid that we all need which provides the building blocks for our epidermal layer, scientific and medical studies have yet to show that this is actually true. However, this amino acid is something that you can purchase as a supplement at most stores today.
If you do suffer from rosacea, this would be the best course of action, especially over using an exfoliating product like glycolic acid. Hopefully we will be able to find a cure for rosacea one day, but for now, we can only experiment with what might work, and hope that a cure will one day be found.
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