In partnership with SA’s top medical aesthetic companies
Have you noticed your nose and cheeks become flushed or red more frequently or permanently? Best you read this.
A blush can be a charming thing, but when it is uncontrollable and the bloom lingers for longer, or when you eat spicy foods or have a glass of red wine, it can feel less attractive, especially when it involves your nose as well.
Sound familiar? There’s a good chance that the heat and reddening you’re experiencing may be telltale signs of rosacea, a chronic, inflammatory skin condition that causes facial redness, flushing and sensitivity.
It is most common in adults between ages 30 and 60, especially among people with fair skin. As it progresses, you may also experience small, red, pus-filled bumps that may be mistaken for acne. People also assume it may be a skin allergy or eczema.
This makes it important to get a proper diagnosis from a medical skin professional, as the condition is treatable once diagnosed correctly, and treating it incorrectly could make things worse.
As it is a chronic condition, rosacea flares up in cyclical stages, getting worse over certain periods and then calming down again.
What causes rosacea?
Even though the cause of rosacea isn’t known precisely, research has shown that is a combination of hereditary and environmental factors could be responsible. Some of the environmental triggers can include temperature extremes, stress, strenuous exercise, exposure to chemicals such as chlorine in swimming pools, drinking alcohol and eating spicy food.
Need to know
If rosacea is not treated, it can get progressively worse – in severe cases even causing a lumpy so-called ‘drinker’s nose’, which can have a devastating effect your self-esteem and self-confidence.
Management of the rosacea can help prevent this severe consequence, even though the rosacea itself can’t be cured.
Your diagnosis
The medical professional at the Renewal Institute will assess your skin, make a diagnosis and recommend a treatment plan accordingly.
Start with the gut
At the Renewal Institute, we use the analogy that the skin is the dashboard to the body: when something doesn’t function optimally inside the body, it will present itself on the skin. Therefore, we promote a holistic approach to health, even when it relates to the physical appearance of the skin.
For this reason, gut health is one of the first aspects the doctors address when treating a patient with a skin condition, as many inflammatory disorders start in the gut.
A healthy, well-functioning digestive system is the foundation for a healthy body and skin. If you do not supply the basic building blocks for a healthy system, it cannot function as it should. Makes sense.
Once the gut is healthy, they start to address skin issues, because they have actually dealt with the source of the problem.
Light relief
Treatments such as lasers – and specifically the revolutionary Limelight – dramatically improve rosacea by addressing the vessels that causes the redness.
Medically prescribed creams are also part of the treatment programme, and dermatological skin creams can soothe and help to reduce the appearance of redness.
To schedule an individual assessment with one of the doctors on the Skin Renewal team, or to find out more about which treatments are best to treat rosacea or sensitive skin, visit Skin Renewal on www.skinrenewal.co.za or contact 0861 SKIN SA (754 672).
Take the quick Beyond Beauty Survey and you could win a R2 000 Skin Renewal voucher to spend in our online store, with free delivery within South Africa. T&Cs apply.