Questions about rosacea - x-posted to health and healing

[jazzharmony]

A poster suggested I put this here.
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I am getting really frustrated with Rosacea and doctors just prescribing medication that doesn't work.

I have been putting rx Nizoral antifungal cream on my flare-ups for the past year and it doesn't work anymore. It probably made my condition worse as now I no longer have flare-ups and seem to be in a permanent state of painful rosacea.

I have tried various natural remedies to treat the symptoms but I really want to know the cause. I have read everything from mites on the skin to fungus to low acid in the stomach to allergies, being the cause of rosacea. Is there any way to get to the bottom of it without merely trying to treat the symptoms, which doesn't work for me anyway? Any theories to share?

If anyone has ideas for getting relief from the stinging/burning/itching on my face, that would be great too

ETA - I don't eat dairy, meat or gluten

[tanyalynn]

I can share a few ideas to look into further, I don't have rosacea but one of my aunts does and we were discussing ideas and overlaps with health stuff I've dealt with--things that run in our family, that may have slightly different ways of showing up.

Have you read Prescription for Nutritional Healing? It has a vit/min list for rosacea, someone typed out the section in H&H in an old thread if you search for it. To me, the list looked like it had a lot of overlap with the nutrients people who are borderline/undiagnosed hypothyroid would need, but also a funky fatty acid issue... evening primrose oil I think? One of the omega-6s that some people don't create well (most people don't have omega-6 deficiencies, but a few people do better with evening primrose oil or borage oil, they've got a specific kind of omega-6)...

In terms of food--gluten's a problem for a lot of people with thyroid issues, dairy can be as well. Taking those out and then searching for a pattern to see if there are others is one approach. Gluten's hard to digest for healthy people.

Oh, if you buy Prescription for Nutritional Healing, and if you look at the section on heavy metals and what to do about mercury and such, don't do that, IMO it's completely wrong. But there's a lot of good stuff in the book, I own it and like it. Downside is that it doesn't give theories about _why_ a person would have those vit/min deficiencies.

If thyroid may be an issue for you, look into why. It runs in my family because we all end up with the same nutritional deficiencies, for the same reason. My thyroid's not 100% now but I feel pretty good, I don't feel symptomatic, just my BBTs are a bit low (but a lot better than before), so it's often fixable.

[mamafish9]

I don't know much about rosacea, but for low stomach acid, you would supplement zinc (often the cause of low stomach acid). Also try digestive enzymes - lately lots of us are finding benefit from pancreatic enzymes. I'd also try some sublingual B12, it's easy to get deficient with lot stomach acid.

[BirthKathy]

My mother-in-law has noticed that MSG makes hers flare up.

[jazzharmony]

Thanks, everyone