This paper raises an interesting topic. The researchers were able to prove that 3 rosacea sufferers were allergic to alpha-tocopherol (Vitamin E) and Vitamin K. By eliminating the components of the creams they were using, they were able to isolate the individual components that were causing the allergy.
Rosacea sufferers can become attuned to the ingredient listing in cosmetics, scouring the list to find something that may irritate. It is worth knowing that even the so-called wonder ingredients themselves may be unsuitable for some. Vitamin E has been included in many products for many years and doesn’t seem to generally bother rosacea sufferers. Vitamin K is a more recent nutrient that became interesting to rosacea sufferers because of its positive affect on blood vessels.
Contact allergy from vitamins in cosmetic products, Dermatitis. 2008 May-Jun;19(3):154-6, Ramírez Santos A, Fernández-Redondo V, Pérez Pérez L, Concheiro Cao J, Toribio J.
We report three new cases of allergic contact dermatitis due to vitamins in cosmetic creams. The first patient was diagnosed with worsening rosacea but had allergic contact dermatitis from alpha-tocopherol in a moisturizing cream. The second and third cases presented as acute eyelid dermatitis due to vitamin K in eyelid lifter creams. Repeated open application testing and patch tests with the actual products and individual components of the creams were useful in establishing the diagnosis.
6 comments ↓
I think only the person with the topical Vitamin E allergy actually had rosacea. Is that correct?
Hi Artist,
Yes that is correct only 1 of the 3 was mentioned as having rosacea. I thought the Vitamin K reference was interesting also because it is a popular ingredient in several treatments that are targetted at rosacea. Thus sufferers might not be aware that an allergy to the main active ingredient that you were using the product for, is a possibility.
A quick search for “rosacea vitamin k” finds several products so it certainly is out there, especially given the thoughts that rosacea is vascular in origin and vitamin K is good for blood vessels.
davidp.
Hi David,
a google search for “rosacea blog” still lists http://www.rosacea.co.uk/blog/ before your page, although it hasn’t been updated for almost a year.
that’s quite unusual. googles index really loves regular updates.
maybe that’s because there’s no http://rosacea-support.org/blog page people can link to?
Hi Max,
The 100+ vectors that Google use for their secret sauce to rank websties also rewards longevity. Andrew’s site has been known as the rosacea blog for much much longer than this site has. BTW I just added a redirect and updated the named link blog to use http://rosacea-support.org/blog – it just redirects to the URL that will scroll through the most recent posts. Thus if people do want to link to rosacea-support.org/blog they can. (I still haven’t quite cracked a good way to have a static front page and a scrolling blog in wordpress).
davidp.
Vitamin K & Vitamin E are antyalergic? Hmmm first heard about it :/
i hv dematitis. through this i am suffreing from vitamin e allergy.i am from india ( mumbai)
Leave a Comment