This skin disease causes redness and pimples on the nose, cheeks, chin, and forehead and is often called “adult acne” as the outbreaks can look like acne. Rosacea is physically unpleasant as it may cause burning and soreness in the eyes and eyelids. More importantly, it can also take a heavy toll on your mental wellbeing.

What Causes Rosacea?

This skin condition seems to affect people who blush easily or have fair skin. It also seems to run in families. This uncomfortable and embarrassing skin condition occurs when something (i.e. a “trigger”) causes the blood vessels in the skin to expand, causing redness.

Top 5 Symptoms of Rosacea

Rosacea is sometimes mistaken for acne, lupus or other skin conditions, which is why it is important to identify the condition in order to treat it successfully.

Flushing or redness: If you’ve noticed that your skin has become very sensitive and experience burning when using facial products, schedule a visit to your dermatologist right away. This skin condition often starts with slight redness on the cheeks, nose, chin, and forehead, similar to mild sunburn. In some cases, redness may occur on the neck and upper chest.

Pimples: Rosacea pimples are round, red bumps that are different from acne pimples that are caused by blackheads and whiteheads. Rosacea pimples occur on the areas of your skin that are red, or on the edges of the redness.

Eye irritation: About half the population suffering from rosacea experiences eye-related symptoms like swelling, redness, burning, a gritty feeling like sand in the eye, styles or conjunctivitis. While vision may get blurry, only in very acute cases is vision permanently affected.

Swollen “bumps” on nose: Men are particularly affected by this symptom characterized by the nose appearing swollen or red.

Red lines on the face: These small red lines look like spider webs and are often visible on the cheeks.

15 Common Triggers

There are many known or suspected rosacea triggers that can cause your rosacea to flare up.

The most common triggers are

• Alcohol
• Spicy foods
• Hot drinks and hot foods
• Exercise or heavy exertion
• Hot baths or saunas
• Extreme hot or cold weather
• Wind exposure
• Sun exposure
• Stress or anxiety
• Sudden change in emotion, like feeling embarrassed or bursting out in laughter
• Menopause
• Chronic cough
• Caffeine withdrawal
• Certain medications, such as topical steroids, some blood pressure drugs, and some opiate painkillers
• Skin products that cause burning of the skin

Like any skin condition, rosacea can be treated with time, care and the correct skin care. Look for a follow-up post from us discussing at length how to control these triggers and treat your rosacea so you can lead a happy, stress-free life.