Featuring Dr. Jason Rivers, MD, FRCPC

Duration: 1 minute, 20 seconds

Rosacea is a common condition primarily affecting the face, which we see in fair-skinned Celts.

This is characterized by a tendency to flush and blush, which occurs after exposure to trigger factors which include stress, sun exposure, spicy foods, alcohol, for example. And what happens with time after the flushing and blushing phase commences, people start to get inflammatory pimples on their face, which can be very persistent.

Rosacea is in it's latest stage associated with a big, bulbous nose like you used to see with W.C. Fields, so those are the late stages of rosacea, known as rhinophyma.

Rosacea has a number of trigger factors, including stress, sunlight, alcohol, spicy foods, a variety of different factors in different people.

Rosacea can be treated by avoiding trigger factors, by using topical medications that counter the inflammation, and also oral antibiotics. For the residual redness that occurs in the skin this can be treated effectively using laser technologies.

Presenter: Dr. Jason Rivers, Dermatologist, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Dermatologist