Rosacea Review - Newsletter of the National Rosacea SocietyRosacea Review - Newsletter of the National Rosacea Society

Published by the National Rosacea Society.
Editor: Dr. Julie Harper, president and owner, Dermatology and Skin Care Center of Birmingham
Managing Editor: Andrew Huff

Rosacea Review is a newsletter published by the National Rosacea Society for people with rosacea. The newsletter covers information pertaining to the disease and its control, including news on research, results of patient surveys, success stories, lifestyle and environmental factors, and tips on managing its signs and symptoms. To receive Rosacea Review by mail, please join the NRS. You can also sign up to receive the newsletter by email.

Summer 2011

Q&A: Itching Disrupts Sleep & Safe Skin-Care Products

Q. I have itching due to rosacea that occurs during the evening and disrupts my sleep. What can I do to alleviate this itching?

A. Sleeping in a room that is too warm often causes itching. A fan or air conditioner may help alleviate this.

The itching also may be caused by overly dry skin or by skin-care products. Avoid rubbing and scratching, which may bring immediate relief but can make matters worse.

Find Right Triggers to Control Rosacea

While medical therapy is an essential weapon in the battle against rosacea, identifying and avoiding the right lifestyle and environmental factors that may aggravate the disorder can be a critical tactic to include in the arsenal. In National Rosacea Society (NRS) surveys of patients who pinpointed and steered clear of their personal rosacea triggers, more than 90 percent reported that this had reduced their rosacea flare-ups.

Teacher Regains Sight After Rosacea Diagnosis

Schoolteachers are legendary for their "eagle eyes" — their uncanny ability to see a note being passed in the last row or a piece of chewing gum being placed surreptitiously in a student's mouth. So it was for Barbara Brown, a retired teacher from Virginia, until about four years ago when she began to experience severe eye irritation.

"It started with what I thought was an eye infection," Barbara said. "I got some ointment from my doctor, but it didn't get any better. He finally sent me to a specialist who diagnosed my problem as ocular rosacea."

Dry Eye May Signal Ocular Rosacea

Eye symptoms are common in rosacea patients and eye dryness is an early sign of subtype 4 (ocular) rosacea, according to a study published in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.1

Noting that the prevalence of eye involvement in rosacea is probably higher than often presumed, Dr. E. Lazaridou and colleagues of the Aristotle University Medical School, Thessalonika, Greece, examined 100 rosacea patients for ocular signs and symptoms using two tests to determine the presence of eye dryness.

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