my failures and success

[flatside]

hey, i havent been here for a while.
my condition has improved. it is not gone or cured. what i had was these pustules, painful and frequent. also had the band of redness across my face. it would flare up sometimes and my face would be painful and feel swollen, tender. i tried several different things. antibiotics worked when i was on them, and it all came back when i got off them. you are probably familiar with that.
my nose was particularly bad and would seem huge sometimes. the worst time was when my whole nose was dark red and felt extremely sore and seemed to be twice its normal size. then i would get those painful pustules elsewhere on my face that would last for a week or two and then leave a mark behind when they were gone. it was really getting me down.
i tried hiding myself from the sun for months, tried a couple of different diets, tried supplements, different facial cleansers, demodex solutions, prosacea, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
i lost weight from dieting but my skin condition never improved much.

then i started dating someone who had IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). she had several books about it and a pretty strict diet. one of the rules of her diet was no red meat. so you know how it goes, you start eating the way your partner does when you're spending a lot of time together. i didnt touch beef for several weeks and there was noticeable improvement. most of my meat was fish and poultry. i also cut down on dairy a lot.
sulfur treatments are helpful with inflammation but to me this is just managing symptoms and not attacking the cause of the problem.
today my nose is just kind of pink instead of red. all of my redness has lightened to pinkness. i havent had a painful pustule in a couple of months. i am not on any antibiotics or nsaids.
once in a while i give in to temptation and will eat some beef. like clockwork, a day or two later i will have some inflammation or a painful red spot somewhere around the center of my face.
so i would say my symptoms have improved about 80% when i'm off red meat.

[Melissa W]

That's good news Flatside. You might want to post that here

http://www.rosaceagroup.org/The_Rosa...ad.php?t=18412

Best wishes for continued success!

Melissa

[MissD]

That's interesting, Flatside. I do not eat red meat either but in my case it has to do with taste and health and not my skin specifically. Studies have shown that regular consumption of red meat can potentially lead to colon cancer so like you, I mostly just have seafood (maybe you've increased consumption of omega 3-rich fish and that has helped your skin as well?) and occasionally poultry or turkey. Whether beneficial to rosacea or not, it certainly is a healthy choice.

I hope you continue to see improvement!

[bluesky]

Hi, that's great that you had such improvement!! Must feel really nice to have that weight lifted off! It can be a challenge though I know, avoiding red meat and for me dairy expecially, as I too recently cut out red meat and also dairy and as of now I have zero active acne which is a first for me in a very long time!

You wouldn't be able to tell the improvement in my case because of my numerous red marks which appear as acne to the average eye. Still, I'm impressed and feel this is a direct result of the dairy/redmeat elimination- I haven't noticed a reduction in flushing/redness yet but that would be a very nice bonus if it does happen!