What is rosacea?

Rosacea is an acne-like skin condition that affects more than 14 million Americans, usually between the ages of 25 and 60. It is characterized by redness in the central part of the face, including the nose, cheek, eyelids, and forehead. While many skin conditions are curable, rosacea is not. It is a chronic (long-term) disorder that is characterized by periods of exacerbation (flares) and remission. The goal of treatment with rosacea is control of symptoms—rather than curing the disease itself. In the most serious cases, patients suffer from large, disfiguring bumps on the face, dark ruddy skin, and serious eye problems.

The hallmarks of this skin condition, which affects adults after the age of about 30, is redness on the forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. Fair-skinned people who blush or become flushed easily may be more at risk for rosacea. Some people develop a ruddy appearance and blood vessels can become visible, as well as pimples in the red area. It can also affect the eyes, making them irritated and watery. Lots of people who think they have rosacea, however, simply have sun damage.

From The Mind-Beauty Connection: 9 Days to Less Stress, Gorgeous Skin, and a Whole New You by Amy Wechsler.

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Sometimes confused with adult acne because it causes pimples on the face, rosacea affects mainly adults, and responds to some acne medications. Rosacea is nonetheless a separate, chronic condition. Symptoms may include pimples and enlarged blood vessels, causing redness and swelling mainly in the middle of the face. Eye irritation, another symptom, is often referred to as ocular rosacea. Rosacea has no cure, but treatment can help control and prevent the most severe symptoms -- enlarged blood vessels and redness and swelling of the nose.

Rosacea is a skin disease that causes redness on your nose, cheeks, chin, forehead and, in some people, little bumps and pimples. People with rosacea may have dry, red, and irritated eyes, and in rare cases, an enlarged nose that is swollen and bumpy.

Rosacea is most common in fair-skinned people. Rosacea cannot be cured, but it can be managed with medicines. The redness may also be treated with lasers and intense-pulsed light (IPL). The rare cases of rhinophyma, where the nose is enlarged and lumpy, may be treated with cosmetic surgery.

Rosacea can present itself in different ways. It may appear as pink or red flushing or dilated blood vessels alone or with pus-filled bumps or deeper red bumps. It can also cause skin thickening and enlargement, usually around the nose. Rosacea may worsen with exposure to certain factors, such as hot or cold temperatures, sunlight, alcohol, spicy foods, stress and heavy exercise. Chronic use of topical steroids on the face may lead to steroid rosacea. The cause of rosacea is unknown.

A hypersensitivity to sun and other factors cause blood vessels near the skin to dilate. This rush of circulation makes the complexion appear red and sets off a vicious cycle of inflammatory cells rushing to the area and triggering angiogenesis (the growth of more blood vessels). The body's wound-healing response tries to provide more highways, or veins, so inflammatory cells can go fix the problem near the skin, and consequently creates a bigger problem. Like acne, rosacea has a diagnostic spectrum of mild to severe. It can generate mild flushing, persistent redness, or the more severe papular kind of acne rosacea with bumpy pimples and sometimes thickening of the skin (rhinophyma). Those tiny pink papules contain inflammatory cells (neutrophils or Tcells), just like the pimples caused by dry skin or irritation.