Featuring Dr. Jan Dank, MD
Rosacea Triggers, Causes, and Treatment
Duration: 1 minute, 30 seconds

Most people that have rosacea have it because of a combination of genetic bad luck and environmental damage, particularly sunlight.  

But there are some medications that can cause rosacea, both internal and external, that can be used, and a doctor should be able to look for those and exclude those in those who suffer from the condition.  

I think it’s important to distinguish between a trigger and a cause. So the triggers are the things that lead to the flushing that then make the condition exaggerate. And so, common triggers are heat, hot foods, spicy foods, sunlight, change in weather, alcohol – and all those thing will increase the blood flow to the face, and the rosacea will blossom.  

For home, it’s hard to treat. There isn’t any particular over-the-counter medication or other thing that will treat it, other than avoiding the triggers and not seeing it as much.  

You pretty much need prescription medicines to get good control of this condition.  They’re mostly anti-inflammatory and antibiotics. We usually start with topicals, but in some patients it takes orals or pills to get the condition under control.  

Patients need to expect that they’re gonna be treating this for at least weeks and often months to get good control. Some people can go into long periods of remission where they don’t have many symptoms, and others have it come back right away and more or less are fated to stay on the medicines indefinitely. 

Presenter: Dr. Jan Peter Dank, Dermatologist, Bellingham, WA

Local Practitioners: Dermatologist