Encouraging results, so far...

[AlkiGirl]

Hi everyone. I was diagnosed by two dermatologists with rosacea recently; I had been flushing quite a bit and was starting to get bumpy skin during/after flushes too. Under the advice of my doctor, I underwent food allergy testing and proceeded with an 'elimination diet' for 4 weeks... cutting out gluten/wheat, dairy, peanuts and all meat, temporarily (to give my digestive system "a rest" on the diet.) I'm stunned to say that a couple weeks after starting, my flushing stopped. My redness has all but disappeared... it's been a couple weeks, so I'm feeling cautiously optimistic... but of course, as I add foods back into the diet, I am watching and dreading any possible rebound effect. Anyway, just wanted to share this bit of good news with the forum :) And of course, see if anyone else has had similar experiences?

[TheMediumDog]

Did you experience any other symptoms, aside from the rosacea, connected with your pre-diet eating habits? Just wondering.

Quite a few people have success with specific diets. The lucky ones. For others of us, diet has no effect.

[phlika29]

Hihi:

You might find this link helpful:

http://rosacea-research.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dietary_Influence

[Melissa W]

Hi AlkiGirl,

That is great yes:
Have you been diagnosed as gluten intolerant?
I was thinking of getting these food allergy tests but I was worried about what the results might be Cry:
Is it very hard to cut out all gluten and wheat?

Welcome to the RF smile:

Best wishes,
Melissa

[hozer2k]

Hihi:

You might find this link helpful:

http://rosacea-research.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dietary_Influence

Am I the only who finds this to be a challenge? I mean there is gluten, carbs, this that, and then all the stuff on this link. I feel a little overwhelmed and don't even know what I CAN eat since almost everything is on the list of stuff that can give you a reaction. I am probably less educated about foods than most so this is not helping, but are there foods that are generally considered "safe". At least I can start off with something to work from. For example, I rarely hear anyone say they have problems with chicken and vegetables. Just seems so confusing and would take forever to figure out what combinations would work.

[AlkiGirl]

It has been pretty hard cutting out all gluten when eating out, but at home, it's not too bad. There are a lot of products out there (millet breads, brown rice pastas, buckwheat pizza crusts, etc) for gluten-intolerant people, so I've been trying to rotate those in my diet. As for whether I was experiencing pre-rosacea symptoms, if I was, they were very subtle. My digestion definitely hadn't been perfect :) but I had attributed that to stress. Very interesting stuff.

Thanks also for the link! Good read...

[Melissa W]

Am I the only who finds this to be a challenge? I mean there is gluten, carbs, this that, and then all the stuff on this link. I feel a little overwhelmed and don't even know what I CAN eat since almost everything is on the list of stuff that can give you a reaction. I am probably less educated about foods than most so this is not helping, but are there foods that are generally considered "safe". At least I can start off with something to work from. For example, I rarely hear anyone say they have problems with chicken and vegetables. Just seems so confusing and would take forever to figure out what combinations would work.

It is confusing and definitely a challenge. I first cut out what I considered to be rosacea reactive foods like dairy and simple sugars. I cut them out as best as possible for over 3 months and truthfully I didn't see any change. The only foods I know for sure that cause a reaction for me are wine and spicy foods.

But for many people there are definite food triggers. I would suggest first cutting out all dairy and simple carbs and see how your skin behaves. If all is calm then you can slowly introduce some of those foods back like cheese, milk etc but those are some of the more common offenders so they may cause a reaction for you. Also, you reacted to white bread. Do you react to whole wheat as well? You may want to try what AlkiGirl did and cut out all wheat, gluten etc and see what happens. I think going for food allergy testing is a great idea as a place to start.

You said your skin had been relatively clear before you ate the white bread. What were you eating at the time it was clear? Those foods you can tolerate well so that gives you a place to start.

Best wishes,
Melissa

[emmawill]

Great. Keep us posted grin:

[AlkiGirl]

Hi everyone. Reporting back as promised! It's been several weeks since starting out this elimination diet, and I'm happy to say that the flushing has stopped. It returns only when I drink alcohol, so I am avoiding that now for the most part. Otherwise, I am feeling great and my skin looks normal. So glad I had the food allergy testing done!

[valby]

I am going to try a proper elimination diet. Does anyone have a link to something I could follow? I would ideally love recipes too.

[MissD]

There are many things that can masquerade as rosacea and that includes food allergies. I can't imagine having to cut out so many things, but it's better than having true rosacea and flushing for no reason at all.