Thought this was a great line from a recent NRS Blog Posting: It would be hard to invent a more embarrassing disease than rosacea. Nice. I’m sure many many rosacea sufferers would agree.
Monday, April 2, 2012
"It would be hard to invent a more embarrassing disease than rosacea," said Dr. Ted Grossbart, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. "It affects the one part of the body that cannot be hidden — the face — and tends to strike people at a time in life when they may be increasingly self-conscious about changes in their appearance. Moreover, especially because this condition is not widely understood, it can leave its victims feeling isolated and even alienated from society."
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In new NRS surveys, 69 percent of rosacea patients said they experienced a flare-up related to emotional stress at least once a month, and more than 90 percent of the respondents said they had suffered some form of physical pain from their condition. A burning sensation was the most commonly reported discomfort, named by 75 percent, followed by itching, cited by 65 percent, and stinging, mentioned by 62 percent. Other types of pain associated with rosacea included swelling (44 percent), tightness (42 percent), tenderness (40 percent), tingling (31 percent), prickling (23 percent) and headache (20 percent).
Perhaps even more ravaging than its physical effects, rosacea often inflicts significant damage to people’s emotional, social and professional lives.
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“While rosacea is a long-term disorder and there is no cure, the good news is that it can be effectively controlled with medical therapy and lifestyle modifications,” Dr. Granstein said. “This can substantially improve the quality of people’s lives.”
The article summarise what we all know, that rosacea can be pretty debilitating on both a physical and emotional level. Although it doesn’t offer any direct advice for dealing with a red angry face, it does link to their medical therapies page which has a high level run down of treatment options. “See your dermatologist” seems to be the NRS’s best advice.
