Rosacea Book Reviews
Following is the list of Rosacea books that I have read and offer some comments on their content. Hopefully my views will help lead you to some good published information on rosacea. Sadly there is little good published information on rosacea.
Whilst the list of books on rosacea is short and disappointing, there is quite a lot going on in the rosacea research world.
I have started searching through recently published papers and other articles on rosacea. Feel free to read Rosacea News to keep up to date on new developments in the field of rosacea.
Note that amazon.com is now selling electronic copies of rosacea articles. Some of these articles are available for free from the publisher. For example the paper "Think outside the box for Rosacea Tx options" is available for free from Skin & Allergy News. Indeed, this article is also available for free as a PDF.
Books Reviewed
- Rosacea, Your Self Help Guide
- The Official Patients Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea
- Brady Barrow’s Rosacea Diet
- The Rosacea Handbook, A Self Help Guide
- Joy-Full, Holistic Remedies
- Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me
Rosacea, Your Self-Help Guide
Author: Arlen Brownstein, Donna Shoemaker.
Web Site: http://www.rosaceaworld.com/
Email: drarlen@rosaceaworld.com
Review Date: March 2003
Available at Amazon.com
This is a gentle book. It makes very gentle claims about the broad applicability of what it has to say.
The book could be summarised in one sentence. "We believe that eating right, taking appropriate supplements, and optimising your digestive system can improve your rosacea, not to mention your overall health."
The book starts off talking about the author’s discovery and subsequent distress at having rosacea. She went first for the traditional dermatologist directed treatment path. For a naturopath this is an honest admission - that she firstly thought that she need to consult mainstream medicine to `get rid of it’. Becoming disappointed with the results she then turned to her background.
The introduction section follows the theme of the book - lots of gently stated facts about rosacea. The treatment section mentions the regulation treatments and then talks about naturopathy and homeopathy. The much loved ZincO even gets a mention.
I’m not a fan of trying to control one’s rosacea by avoiding known triggers. This comes from a desire to be rid of the disease by not giving in and changing your life dramatically. Thus, the seemingly obligatory section on triggers and stress doesn’t really help. Next, is a short section on makeup and lasers.
The remainder of the book deals with nutrition for your skin. As well as dealing with supplements, the book asks us to forget the `food pyramid’ and embrace the `food wheel’. The section on Fats and Oils is particularly detailed. This is the highlight of the book for me, information about for eg. borage oil and flax seed oil. These are often talked about in the Rosacea Support Group, especially in regards to ocular rosacea.
The book finishes with some discussions about the psychology of your face, asking us to remember that we are not `just our face’. This is good advice especially for us that obsess about our appearance.
Approaching the disease from the nutritional side, this book is one of the better introductory rosacea texts.
See also: an interview with Arlen Brownstein, Rosacea, Your Self-Help Guide
The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea
Author: James N. Parker M.D.
and Philip M. Parker M.D., Editors
Review Date: March 2003
Available at Amazon.com
This book got off on the wrong foot for me on the front cover. Calling the disease Acne Rosacea is a step backwards for all. No one is really calling it acne rosacea anymore. It is different enough from acne that the moniker is just confusing. Further, treating rosacea it like acne may just be the worst thing you can do.
The book is more of a template for `generic health researching’ than anything specific to rosacea. The information is of such a generic level that a sourcebook on the next medical topic is just a search and replace away.
I thought that I might get to see some new information, but alas I was disappointed. On Page 4 we read
"All too often, patients diagnosed with acne rosacea will log on the the Internet, type words into a search engine, and receive several Web site listings which are mostly irrelevant
or redundant"
Sadly this is the opposite of what you find. The National Rosacea Society comes up as a PageRank of 1 on Google. As much as we chastise the NRS, they do provide a very good starting point. If people were to start their search at the #1 rosacea web site then they will be on the right track. I’m not sure the same can be said for this book.
Later they promise "a chapter dedicated to helping you find your peer groups". They end up only mentioning a prescription drug page at rosacea-control.com, CureZone and MedHelp (of which CureZone didn’t mention rosacea at all, and MedHelp timed out). Again they never mention the NRS or the Rosacea Support Group. I could keep going - the section on books doesn’t mention the best text we have, the pages of links doesn’t mention the Open Directory Project Categories …
The Guidelines chapter is too short to contain anything useful. They talk about "another type of rosacea called vascular rosacea" this statement left me wondering if they had any idea what they were saying. Surely just paraphrasing the standard classification for rosacea would have been ideal introduction, especially when you are unsure of the topic you are addressing.
The whole aim of the series of books seems to be to give you information that you can’t find on the well known `rosacea internet’. I have to say from my reading of this book there are scant new resources worth noting.
In the end the authors would have done better to embrace what they knocked in the first few pages. A trip to google.com, drop the `acne’ bit at from `acne rosacea’ and surf the first few sites you find. After that you will be in front of this book, and have something else to do with your $USD 25.
Rosacea Diet
Author: Brady Barrows
Web Site:http://www.rosacea-control.com
Email: webmaster@rosacea-diet.com
Review Date: October 2001
Available at Amazon.com
Brady Barrow’s rosacea diet has been around for a couple of years now. If you ever wanted to know what it was all about then hopefully this text will be of interest.
So what do you actually get when you purchase a copy of the diet ? you get an outline of what foods are claimed to cause rosacea, and a suggested list of foods to eat. A couple of books are suggested as supporting information for the diet. Interestingly some dieting books, including an internationally well known diet is incompatible with the rosacea diet - being full of offending foods.
The text contains a full listing of suggested foods to eat for 30 days. The remainder of the text of the diet is a curious collection of email exchanges from the diet’s creator and people interested in trying it.
Brady points out several times on his web site that his diet is hard to stick to. The foods that you are asked to give up won’t kill you, but for sure it will take a significant amount of self control - especially for those used to a modern western diet. Brady is also clear in what he isn’t saying. The diet is not claimed to be a cure. So given that it is difficult and not claimed to cure you, what does it have to offer you ?
Many have commented on the diets author’s desire to charge for the diet. One could say that people will only really value something that has some cost. This argument works for the rosacea-support group at large - many learned people have posted useful information to the group, but as it has come at no cost to list members, the value is missed. The alternate argument is that if you pay for something, you want it to work, and when you pay for it, your perceived rights suddenly expand. As the amount asked for is small I don’t see this as a real issue. To take this point further, if you read the diet, and the pages of comments on the web site, it represents a couple of years of answering the same questions for the diet’s author. Anyone who charges such a small fee, and sticks at it for a couple of years must really believe in what they are doing.
I attempted to gain some feedback from anyone who has tried the diet. I collected 85 email addresses from the diet itself and the web site and asked them for any feedback. Given that the best possible result I could hope for would only amount to anecdotal evidence, I was interested in as much feedback as possible. Brady tells us that he has had more than 500 people try his diet. Although I have only tried 85 names, and over time email addresses spoil, it is at least a small sample from which to make some comments. From these 85 addresses I got 17 bounces, 1 said it made their skin awful, 6 never tried it in the end, 1 said it was too hard, 3 said it did nothing and 4 said that they had a good response and believe that the diet was what made the difference for them.
Whilst the feedback was quite small the 4 good responses are an encouragement that for some the diet is worthwhile.
Some of the positive comments :
"I’m very grateful to Brady. While I have never followed his exact menus, I have now been avoiding certain food groups, per his suggestions, for over a year. The difference in my skin is very noticeable. I still have to avoid sun and heat and irritating skin products, and I still take tetracycline - but I was doing all those things before Brady’s diet and I still had large cystic bumps, swelling and pain. I have no doubt that following Brady’s advice helped me."
– Rose
"I have been on the diet for a year now and I have found that not only does it control my skin problems but it is a healthy diet. Perhaps so many people have suffered from Rosacea because of the high carb, low fat diet most people consume. Perhaps, the rosacea sufferers body is finally exhibiting stress from all the sugar and highly refined foods most people eat on a regular basis, perhaps the liver is not doing it’s job properly (cleaning the skin) because of a constant poor diet. The rosacea diet basically triggered my research into a whole new approach to eating…"
– Nicola
"I have tried EVERYTHING I could find, have spent countless dollars and time trying to find something to help this condition. Brady’s diet is the only thing that gives me results over time. I have found some things have worked for limited amounts of time, but this is the only thing over time."
– Debbie
Brady has recently created an email group at Yahoo! Groups relating to his diet. Another positive comment can be found at http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/rosacea-diet-users-support-group/message/56
Given that I haven’t actually tried the diet (it would require an committment I’m not willing to give), and going by the handful of comments that it works for some really searching - it could have something to offer. Will it work for you ? Well if you are really keen and willing to stick it out then you have nothing to lose.
The Rosacea Handbook, A Self Help Guide
Author: Ann-Marie Lindstrom
Publisher: United Research Publishers, 2000.
Pages: 169
Review Date: July, 2000.
Available at amazon.com
As we all know, publications that deal with Rosacea are few and far between. I was delighted that a book specifically on rosacea was available. We will all benefit as rosacea becomes more mainstream.
Those familiar with the publications and surveys of the National Rosacea Society will recognise some of the substance of the book. The NRS suggests trigger avoidance as a major contribution to reducing the severity of rosacea. This theory doesn’t sit well with those who demand nothing less than the reversal of all symptoms. The thought of going down the path of finding which histamine producing foods cause me problems is somewhat unappealling.
The book has chapters on the mechanics of rosacea, ocular symptoms, diagnoses, stages of progression, theories of causes, vascular system, rosacea management through triggers, nutrition, stress, treatments and a chapter on alternative medicine. It is good to see the broad spectrum of rosacea topics addressed.
The section on nutrition deals with zinc, omega-3 fatty acids, flax seed, selenium, vitamins A,C and E, niacin and water.
Chapter 13 is about treatments and deals with antibiotics, tretinoin, retinaldehyde, steroids azelaic acid and a couple of paragraphs on lasers.
Those looking for details on photoderm, zinc oxide, antihistamines, jojoba oil and other new treatments talked about on rosacea-support, will need to hope and wait for a second edition of the book. Thus those who have been members of the Rosacea Support Group for more than a couple of months won’t find the miracle cure that we hang around for.
The book will prove useful to those starting out on their quest to beat Rosacea. It is ideal to give to someone recently diagnosed with rosacea. Something in print is easy to digest. New patients reading this book may find relief for mild rosacea and if that is the case then the book is well worth it.
The publisher can dispatch you a copy from their web site.
See also: an interview with Ann-Marie Lindstrom, The Rosacea Handbook
Joy-Full, Holistic Remedies
Author: Georgie Holbrook:
Email: joy_full@earthlink.net
Web Page: http://www.joy-full.com
Pages: 123
Review Date: April, 2000.
Available from Amazon.com
One of the joys of being a part of the rosacea support group is that people sometimes approach me with information on their experiences of rosacea. Georgie Holbrook has self published a book about her journey with rosacea for 7 years. She had everything stacked against her, many many doctors telling her that her rosacea could not be cured. Her book details a period in her life when she decided to ignore what she was being told and decided to look within and outside for a cure. Her journey is about healing, healing from the past hurts, and spiritual, emotional and physical healing for today. Encouraging us to measure our joy, to become in tune with the beauty of nature around us, self improvement, and to get in touch with our spiritual self and maker, Georgie maps a path to a holistic approach to healing. A short section of the book is also devoted to some regimes related to cleansing, exercise and diet, but this is only dealt with as part of the the whole picture. This is the strength of the book, an approach that encourages us to look at all of our lives.
I would recommend the book to those who would like to explore a wholistic approach to their life. Especially it would seem that those who have past hurts and emotional scars will really benefit if Georgie’s story is anything to go by. This is purely a personal opinion, and you will no doubt find your own positive messages from the book. We all need to think laterally and open our minds to different approaches to healing.
Georgie is a delight to deal with and a true friend to all us Rosaceans.
The book is very reasonably priced, this is because self publishing means that you basically have to pay for the books up front before they are printed, and you take the financial risk yourself. The book is available online at her web page.
See also: an interview with Georgie Holbrook, Joy-Full Holistic Remedies
Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me
Nona Says: I use Paula Begoun’s book: "Don’t Go to the Cosmetics Counter Without Me". In it she names about all of the ingredients used in cosmetic products and what their purpose is. She is very tuned it to rosacea and what irritates it (but she is not a dermatologist and not infallible). Her website is cosmeticscop.com. She also puts out a cosmetic, skin and hair care line that is free of fragrances and other irritants like some plant oils that are touted as useful in many products.
Read this book or others and want to review it ? Leave a note in the comments below or send me an email - pascoedj+rosacea@gmail.com
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