I know how you feel when you say it occupies your thoughts every waking hour. It makes me very depressed when I have a bad flare up, but I often feel better about it when I’ve got it under control.

The doxycycline (antibiotics) have been the biggest help for me, but recently as mentioned earlier, vitamin A tablets have improved things even more. To the point where I have very few pimples at all.

Exercise
- Walking doesn’t hurt for me, as long as it’s not in the sun. I try to go early in the morning or at night and wear a hat in the day.
- Running unfortunately aggravates my condition.

Alcohol
- Beer sometimes makes me flush, but sometimes it’s OK. I haven’t worked out why yet. Maybe it’s the type of beer. I haven’t stopped drinking beer, but I try not to drink it too often.
- Wine seems to make me flush badly, so I’ve given up drinking it =(.

Sun
- This is one of the worst things to deal with I think. Although everyone suggests sunscreen, I can’t wear it. It always makes my skin worse. I have tried the zinc sunscreen for sensitive skin but that’s no good either. I just wear a hat if I know i’m going to be in the sun and if not, I try to walk on the shady side of the road.

Accutane
- I was on this about 10 years ago when I had acne. It has some nasty side affects but I was on a high dose.

Non-medicated products
- For a face wash I use Olay gentle foaming face wash with aloe and it has been fantastic for me. Very mild and I can use it twice a day.
- For a moisturizer I use Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisture (sensitive skin). It works better than any other for me, but I still find that any kind of moisturizer or sun screen every day causes problems.

The first thing I would ask for if I were you is doxycycline.

Good luck!
Stuart

I’ve had rosacea for about 3 years now, albeit in its mild form. I started developing it at the same time as i found out that I was HIV positive. Some doctors have said that this may be linked – although a lot of doctors have said many different things – but the last dermatologist i saw told me there was no link. I am completely at ease with being HIV positive but my rosacea, which although being mild, nonetheless, occupies my thoughts nearly every waking hour.

Ive recently moved to south america where the hot son and climate seems to have aggravated the condition, or caused it to flare up more.

I went and saw a dermatologist who has proscribed the following:

Cetaphil, gentle cleansing bar
Bioderma Sensibio DS
Umbrella emulsion en spray – a sunblock.

The derm told me to wash my face twice a day with the soap and to then apply the Sensibio DS cream and before I went out to use sunblock.

She mentioned to me the use of roaccutane but said that as my condition was so mild, she first wanted to try these other medications.

I do feel as if the Cetaphil has helped and am glad she prescribed it. The Bioderma Sensibio DS and the suncream seem not to be so effective..

Amazingly after going to a number of top clinicians in the UK, it was not until I reached Venezuela that my condition has definitively been classified as Rosacea. Now that I know I have it, I obviously have a number of questions that if anyone could answer,I would greatly appreciate.

I am considering asking to be put on to the roaccutane, but as my condition is mild, is this the right move? I have a constantly pink / red nose and cheeks and some blood vessels on my cheeks are visible. God I would love so much for my face to turn back to normal and if the above treatment would give me the chance of doing that, then I wouldn’t hesitate to take it up.

Does this condition mean that holidays in the sun are, to an extent, off limit? Obviously, moving on from that, I am now starting to reconsider my choice of coming to live in a place with as much sun as Venezuela. Perhaps, for a person with the condition of Rosacea, this was the wrong decision.

The main trigger for me is drinking beer. This usually happens on a friday night when I go out, and seeing a mist of red descend down upon my face breaks my heart. Vanity is an awful thing, but rosacea seems to create a vicious circle which debilitates my ability or resolve to get out myself. If I really want to fight this disease, does that mean Im going to have to give up drinking beer? That really would be an extremely difficult lifestyle choice to take. Have other people taken this step? I would be interested to know. Are there other types of alcohol which are less inflammatory – wines or spirits? I have stopped taking cocaine as I’m fairly sure this was quite a large trigger, and anyway after the initial lure of the cheap price and high quality, i realized that this wasn’t really something I wanted to do. Giving up smoking – should this be done? And finally exercise, does this help keep the condition at bay?

My final question is when people talk of remission does this ever mean a complete disappearance of the cosmetic symptoms? I apologize for the slightly incoherent and self-centered nature of my post, but would really appreciate any answers or comments from anyone here. As I have said, my condition is not particularly severe, and knowledge of this definitely make me question the magnitude of my own vanity, especially when compared to the difficulties some other sufferers are facing. To those people, my heart really does go out to you, and I strongly prey for you having as much success as possible in fighting this.

http://rosacea-support.org/focus-on-low-dose-accutane.html

davidp.