What is Rosacea?
Rosacea is a chronic inflammatory condition characterized by facial redness, flushing and blushing, pimples and worsening with various common triggers like coffee, alcohol consumption, exercise, hot weather, cold weather and many other commonly-encountered stimuli.
Rosacea affects at least 16 million Americans, and many more people world-wide. It is more common in light-skinned individuals due to sun-exposure being a main cause of rosacea; however, people with any skin type can be affected.
Basically, anything fun or interesting to someone can trigger a rosacea flare: activities outside causing sun-exposure, exercise, cold weather, hot weather, alcohol consumption (especially red wine), coffee and tea, hormonal changes or often for no reason whatsoever. Of course, stress can also cause a rosacea flare.
Rosacea tends to worsen over time, and classically occurs in sun-exposed sites of the nose, cheeks, chin and central forehead, and even sometimes the ears. People can suffer mainly from redness, flushing, blushing and broken (extra) blood vessels, or these symptoms can occur together with pimples and pustules that resemble acne. Rosacea can also affect the conjunctiva of the eye causing eye irritation and difficulty wearing contact lenses, as well as the ears which flush along with the face.
