I was diagnosed with rosacea in my mid twenties. There is so little research on the condition that very few people (doctors and specialists included) know much about it, even dermatologists. Why? because in most cases, its not seen as life changing as acne or psorasis, or any other skin condition, so little money, time or research has gone into learning more.
If you want to talk to a doctor - a general practioner will know as much about the condition as a person who has done a little bit of research over the internet in my expereince. A dermatologist will know more but IMHO they just push expensive treatments (and ones filled with all sorts of chemicals) that are not proven.
There are many theories on what causes rosacea from bacteria to fungus (ewww - gross i know) on the skin. As with any skin condition, it usually comes down to what you put in your body as opposed to what you put on topically. Topical creams etc can help, but that won't solve the problem (if the rosacea problem can be saved at all!!).
After many years of trying all sorts of combinations of treatments, here's what works for me (keep in mind that everyone is different):
Stay away from any product with perfume, alcohol, parabens and chemical sunscreens. All of these exacerbate rosacea symptoms, especially chemical sunscreen such as:
Benzophenones (dixoybenzone, oxybenzone)
PABA and PABA esters (ethyl dihydroxy propyl PAB, glyceryl PABA, p-aminobenzoic acid,padimate-O or octyl dimethyl PABA)
Cinnamates (cinoxate, ethylhexyl p-methoxycinnamate, octocrylene, octyl methoxycinnamate)
Salicylates (ethylhexyl salicylate, homosalate, octyl salicylate)
Digalloyl trioleate
Menthyl anthranilate
Avobenzone
I use the following products (but you need to see what works best for you):
Facewash: cetaphil, but if you want something fancier, I have also found that biotherm's sensitive skin face wash works aok. So do most of the clinique products, especially their anti-red line.
Moisturizer: I usually use a vitamin e cream for day and clinique's youth surge at night
Sunscreen: this is especially important for rosacea suffers - a physical sunscreen (e.g. titamium dioxide and zinc based) by clinique - city block 25 spf. Apparently Clarins has come out with an spf 40 that i have been meaning to try. don't be put off by the scent of these sunscreens, perfumes from fancy chemical sunscreen also do more harm than good.
Foundatation - anything clinique or any other line that is perfume or paraben free.
Medication - I tried metrogel (prescription) for 2 years and it didn't do enough to warrant me putting antibiotics and parabens (loaded with these) onto my skin daily. I haven't tried Prosacea as another poster mentioned, so I can't comment on that. A friend of mine was persuaded by their derm to do the laser treatment, but after almost $1000 in treatments the derm sheepishly had to tell my friend that the treatment (which has never been proven IMHO) didn't work and he was back to square one.
In all, what makes my skin the best is staying away from triggers - everyone's are different (e.g. alcohol, spicy foods, gluten, cold weather, etc.). Mine are coldweather and gluten. Unfortunately i love bread too much to give it up so I deal with the consequences. The only thing with medicinal properties that does me any good is:
EXTRA VIRGIN COCONUT OIL!!
Taking the coconut oil internally as well as applying it topically has worked wonders for me. I could go on forever about this stuff, but if you are interested, google it.
Oh and drink lots of water to flush out toxins from your skin.
Hope this helps!!
d
