I found a very effective semi-natural method - Salt water

[CptCaveman]

Hi everyone! I'm pretty new to this forum.

I have rosacea on my face, and tried using rosex cream/gel for a while only I would find that it would come back really quickly once I would stop using it. I also found that once it would come back, it would be a lot more resistant to the rosex. I started to neglect it a bit because I lost interest, until I read that you can have permanent changes in your face if you manage it poorly.

I found out by accident that whenever I would go surfing around twice a week, it would clear up the rosacea almost 100%. It seemed massively more effective than the rosex cream. As I thought about it, the surfing would contain:
- Exercise
- Sunlight
- Stress relief
- Salt water that would flush over your face every 30seconds to 2mins.
- All of this for a minimum of 1.25 hours.

I decided to try mixing some salt with some water until it tastes the same salinity as east Australian sea water, and wetting the rosacea with this water and then letting the water dry. I repeated this for around an hour, or until I got bored and stopped. I also continued with the rosex twice a day.

I found that doing this massively improved the quality of my skin. I found that at first, the dry scaly bits disappeared and left my skin very smooth just like normal skin, only that the redness was still present. Then after 2-3 days of doing this, the redness disappeared as well.

I'm yet to try swimming in the sea where the face would be submerged for a much longer period of time, only it wouldn't have the flush-dry cycle that surfing would give the face.

So far I haven't experienced a faster removal of symptoms. Has anyone else found this?


P.S. On a side-note, I also found that drinking premium beer (e.g. Hieneken, or any beer with no preservatives or additives) instead of regular/local beer would not aggravate it nearly as much. Maybe something to do with the massive amount of preservatives and additives in regular/local beer.

[Artist]

I find this extremely interesting. I've seen several posts from people who tried salt water on their skin for the very same reason. Their rosacea reportedly cleared up whenever swimming in the ocean (results NOT great, from what I remember). What I HAVEN'T seen is someone applying it several times like the way you did. Your way could be more effective because after a few wet/dry applications, your face has a higher concentration of salt on it (since the water evaporates and leaves salt behind each time). Also, I wonder if the salt water is drawing out excess fluids, helping to relieve swelling and decreasing the pressure on the capillaries.

Another thought is that I'm pretty sure cathelicidins (see Gallo studies) are slowed by salt. So, at the end of an hour of spritzing, the super concentrated salt solution may really be helping to curb their activity.

Another thing I like is that you don't necessarily have to keep the salt solution on your skin all day - just the one hour. Once you are done, the salt can be rinsed off well. This is good because salt can cause acne. Also, I have tried spritzing on a little salt water, but found that after a few hours it irritated my skin. I bet rinsing off well would help prevent this.

Hmm..maybe I'll spritz while doing my red light therapy. Can't do much of anything else, after all

Thanks for sharing. Please keep us updated, good or bad.

Cheers! Artist

[CptCaveman]

So its not all that new then.

So far its still gone. I even did very vigorous exercise two days in a row, and had a preservative/additive free beer last night, and it still hasn't come back. The salt hasn't caused acne at all yet either.

The redness has stayed away as well. Not bad!

[Artist]

It's been tried, but not in the way you presented here. I really think your method may be much more effective. It's the simple fact that salt water is more concentrated, so it pulls extra fluids (edema) out of the skin by osmosis. The trick is, it also pulls fluids out of the bacteria on the skin, causing them to dehydrate, shrivel up, and die. I never made that connection before, but I think that may be what is going on, and is perhaps why the rosacea ltd disc is so effective (for those that can use it...). I wonder if they would do well with a plain salt disc option, without the sulphur.. Anyway, a bacteria found on the demodex mite has been found to likely be responsible for at least some of the inflammation of rosacea. If salt water kills bacteria, then your method may be ridding you of that pest and other possible bacterial triggers (in addition to possibly slowing down the cathelicidins).

See here:

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/409252

and here,

http://ask.yahoo.com/20031112.html

I hope that makes sense..

Cheers!

Artist

[Aurelia]

Hi CptCaveman,

Welcome to the group, and well done on your reasoning.

Quite a few rosaceans at the RSG (our longer-established email board) have reported improvement from swimming in the sea, and I'm sure at least a couple said it was one of their best treatments. Likewise, people have tried different methods and mixes for splashing their skin with saline solutions at home. Even so, your presentation was first rate, and you definitely brought something new and valuable to the debate.

With regard to Artist's point about rinsing off well to prevent the salt from causing skin irritation, that might be even more important with broken skin. A dog I had years ago developed boils as part of a serious allergic reaction - to newly-laid concrete, of all things. When someone recommended letting him play in the surf to heal it, the irritation later had him in agony for hours. (Remember the painful phrase about "rubbing salt into the wound"?)

This reminds me of the posts we get about splashing with a weak mixture of sodium bicarbonate in tepid water, which is particularly good at drawing out impurities from the skin, but really needs to be rinsed clear to make sure none of the bicarb remains on the skin. Even then, it's best for people with stronger, oily skin and usually a bad option for people with thin, fragile, or very dry skin. (Again, horses for courses.)

Anyway, it's great to hear that you're doing so well, so please let us know how you progress.

Kind regards,

Aurelia

[Artist]

ohhh poor doggie!

That's a great point about the skin type, Aurelia. The irritation may out weigh potential benefits for a thin, fragile skin type :( Or, a weaker salt solution could be tried (and rinsed well afterwards).

Artist

[Artist]

Caveman: Is this still working for you?

I was curious, so sprayed my cheeks three times with very diluted salt water the other night. Unfortunately, my skin was sensitive the next day from it. This happened last time I tried it, too. I'll never learn Glad it seems to help some folks, though...

Artist

[CptCaveman]

After having it clear up completely, I thought I would try and give it a bit of a workout on the weekend with a few beers. I also did some vigorous exercise after the weekend. Unfortunately both caused a minor re-lapse (minor compared to others I've had).

What was good though, was that I cotinued with the salt + rosex and that really helped. Its now wed and its almost gone again

Once I have been re-lapse free for a good couple of weeks I will risk taking out the rosex and maintaining the salt water. I'll report back with the results

[Lisamouries]

Hi CptCaveman.
If you take out the Rosex try doing it gradually first, like every other day. I tried stopping suddenly and it cam back with a vengeance.
Fingers crossed that the salt water will do the trick.
Lisa M.

[CptCaveman]

ok thanks for the advice

i do find that the salt initially irritates my face, however after i stop the salt water treatment it recovers and improves the rosacea