Rosacea is a skin disease that primarily affects older men, but more and more I’m seeing younger women with it.
Rosacea is often caused by environmental factors, hormonal influences, genetics and gut disbiosis. In fact, rosacea is linked to gut disorders and the most effective treatments occur when both the gut and the skin are addressed. Rosacea will always have a “trigger” whether it’s food related, hormonal, environmental (excess sun exposure) or stress. In fact I’ve witnessed rosacea clear almost 90% in a client who quit her highly stressful job…within 2 months her skin was clear. So never underestimate the strength of stress on your system.
When a client comes to me with rosacea I initially work out what type of rosacea they have (I’ve seen so many now that I can tell within a few seconds of looking at someone’s skin) and what the circumstances were in their life when they first noticed it. This is really important because no matter what I say, clients will poo-poo any relationship between their skin and events in their lives…until we speak about it. When I talk about auto immune issues and gut health, they usually don’t understand how the skin only reflects what’s happening on the inside. Poor skin health is very rarely just a skin issue…
I then like to talk about diet, stress, lifestyle and historical illnesses & medication. This gives me a clearer picture of their overall health and shows me a little more about whether I can help them and indeed, whether they will let me. Changing your gut health for clearer skin requires a dedication and commitment that not everybody is open to. I often work with their doctor or naturopath (if they have them) so that we get a better result, quicker. Although to be honest, I’d rather work alongside a natural health practitioner as they have a more holistic view of health and aren’t just interested in prescribing drugs to mask the problem.
Often we remove dairy and gluten from our clients diet and allow 2-4 weeks for that to settle. We also introduce pre and pro biotics, fermented foods and non dairy options for our coffee and cheese loving clients! We don’t do this all in one day – it takes time to incorporate these changes and there is often a period of “detoxing” that occurs and needs to be worked through and supported. Often this detox occurs through the skin and makes the rosacea worse than what it was before, initially.
With customised treatments, I can then support my client through the worst of this and reduce the amount of demodex mites on the skin. Demodex mites are more prolific and active on a rosacea client and need to be managed.
Some clinics use heat based treatments like IPL and laser on rosacea skin, but that’s never made any sense to me…why would we “burn” a heated area? The thought of burning and killing the mite alone has some merit, but the damage to the surrounding tissue would seem counteractive to me. So I choose a gentler, more holistic approach which means that although results may take longer, they last longer too and hopefully encourage a better lifestyle for the clients.
If you suffer with rosacea and are at your wits’ end, get in touch – I may be able to help.