Learn What Mystery Triggers May Be Causing Your Rosacea Flare-Ups

A recent study found that nearly 415 million people worldwide suffer from rosacea, with an estimated 16 million of them Americans. This common skin disorder varies in severity, sometimes presenting only a minor nuisance, while others find their faces taken over by redness, visible blood vessels, and bumps. And the severity of the condition tends to get worse after each flare-up, which means finding ways to prevent the onset of a rosacea flare-up in the first place is the best course of action.

At Seacoast Dermatology, our team of experienced and knowledgeable board-certified dermatology experts understand the effects that rosacea can have on our New England patients, which is why we’ve pulled together the following tips for managing rosacea.

If you’d like to take the mystery out of rosacea, read on. 

The common rosacea flare-up triggers

Rosacea can be a moving target in terms of what sets it off, and it varies from one person to the next. That said, we’ve found that there are certain triggers that seem to be responsible for the lion’s share of flare-ups, including:

• Exposure to the sun
• Alcohol
• Hot beverages
• Spicy foods
• Stress
• Facial creams and lotions
• Cleansers
• Makeup
• Swings in temperature and weather conditions
• Exercise
• Certain medications

Again, we want to emphasize that these are the most common triggers, and you may have your own unique set of conditions that can lead to a rosacea flare-up. And that brings us to our next point: learning those triggers.

Keeping track of triggers

One of the best ways to stay one step ahead of a rosacea flare-up is to keep a sort of rosacea diary, recording when you have a flare-up. When making notes about your flare-up, put everything down, including:

• What you ate
• The weather
• The temperature
• What you were doing
• How you were feeling

No detail is too small and even small things may provide a clue as to what sets off your rosacea. Also, note the onset of your symptoms and their severity.

As you continue to keep this diary, you’ll start to notice trends, and when you come in to see us, we’ll sit down with you to review your diary to discover where some of the problems may lie.

Taking action

The next step, once we’ve uncovered what some of your mystery triggers may be, is to set up a trigger avoidance plan. For example, if you know that high sun is one of the culprits behind your rosacea flare-ups, sunscreen and hats will become your new allies in the battle against this skin condition.

This trigger avoidance plan should probably only involve a few tweaks in your lifestyle so, rest assured, we won’t be changing your life in dramatic ways (it’s not too difficult to give up spicy foods!).

In the meantime, we’ll do our part to treat your rosacea through prescription medications, topical creams, and laser therapy.

Between a solid trigger avoidance plan and our treatments, you should be able to keep your rosacea under control, preventing it from casting an uncomfortable and unsightly pall over your skin. 

To get started on discovering your unique triggers, give one of our four locations in Exeter, Portsmouth, Dover, or Newmarket, New Hampshire, a call. Or you can use our convenient online scheduling tool to set up an appointment.