Question
“I find a lot of the information I read about skin redness talks about it like it’s a surface thing, which may be for most people. As a rosacea sufferer, I believe there’s more to it, the surface redness is going on much deeper and is just the build-up or “scarring” from a lifetime of extreme flushing. What can reduce the flushing? I know that alcohol and certain foods can make it worse but is there anything that can cut this off at the pass?”
Answer
Phew – where to start. When it comes to rosacea, outside of topical skincare (assuming that’s figured out and you’re protecting your skin with SPF every day), addressing 3 areas of internal health can really make a difference. Working with a naturopath is the best way to sort through all this but most often the root causes are:
- Inflammation (internal inflammation often fuels the fires of external inflammation)
- Microbiome disturbance (this is both internal – in the gut, and external – our skin’s microbiome. We can’t address inflammation without addressing both)
- Hormones (particularly inflammation inducing hormones like cortisol – “the stress hormone”).
Start exploring how to reduce internal inflammation, support your gut, and balance out hormones to really get to the root of things
Going into all of those is definitely beyond the scope of what I can advise (or even try to unpack in this post), but start by looking to slowly adjust your diet to be one that includes antiinflammatory foods, get enough sleep, find ways to reduce stress (deep breaths, walking, spending time in nature, etc), and support your skin with SPF, calming ingredients, and topical probiotics. I know, easy to say but just take baby steps towards balancing/supporting each area
Until next time,
P.S. A helpful Radiant Rebel in the Facebook group also noted that she “saw a bunch of holistic practitioners and figured out my root cause is my liver”. She’s now exploring ways to “strengthen her liver”. Hop into the Facebook group to join the discussion if you’re interested, and check out this podcast episode where Whisper from Alternate Routes goes into depth about detox/liver/digestion/etc (and supporting our skin from the inside out).
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