SIBO rosacea link

[Melissa W]

I am going to ask my derm to Rx it for me when I see him next. He is usually pretty open about these type of things. However he would not do the cpn protocol for me as he said the side effects could be worse than the disease. This though is not in that category. I will update everyone when I see him next which is a while away.

[J-Mill]

Originally Posted by Melissa W

I am going to ask my derm to Rx it for me when I see him next. He is usually pretty open about these type of things. However he would not do the cpn protocol for me as he said the side effects could be worse than the disease. This though is not in that category. I will update everyone when I see him next which is a while away.

Way to guinea pig yourself!

Fingers crossed for you.

[pca_]

JMILL you could go the natural route and take enteric coated oregano oil for two weeks and then stop and repeat with enteric coated peppermint oil, from now foods at iherb.com

I saw my rosacea vanish 99% on this regime after a weeks time. Totally amazing. Even better, take lots of probiotics during and after treatment.

[Melissa W]

Originally Posted by J-Mill

Way to guinea pig yourself!

Fingers crossed for you.

Anything for you guys

[BoDuke]

pca, what dosages did you take of each? is your rosacea still greatly improved? oil of oregano has outstanding anti-microbial properties. i take the sublingual form daily and notice wicked die off within hours almost every time. however, it seems like enteric coated would be superior to the sublingual form for sibo. i would be willing to try the natural route in that i don't think it would interfere with my c. pneumoniae protocol. it is also important to remember that there can be hydrogen and methane producing bacterial overgrowth in the intestines. rifaximin is active against the hydrogen producing forms. this means that rifaximin would not benefit everyone with sibo. oil of oregano and peppermint oil would cover both types of bacterial overgrowth, in theory. i just don't know what dosages it would take to eradicate sibo.

[lindas]

Melissa,

What did you mean by cpn protocol? I finally have an appointment with Dr. Cohen this week and will be flying to NYC on Thursday to see him. Any suggestions? I have seen more than 10 dermatologists during my 30 year struggle with rosacea and hope he can help me get it under control - nothing seems to work and topicals/moisurizers/cleansers only irritate my skin even more. I will also ask him about Rifaximin. Thanks

[Marki]

Hi everyone, I’ve been reading this forum for a while now and I though i'd join and share my experiences of rosacea.

I started with rosacea about four months ago; it started with just a small red blemish to the left of my nose. It itched a little, I thought it was just dry skin but moisturising did nothing. After a fortnight it had got much bigger and spread over my nose and to my right upper cheek. My doctor told me it was rosacea, I had to that point never heard of it. I was prescribed Doxyclycline that worked on the intense burning and moisturiser for the dry itching skin but it wasn't very effective in taking the redness away. I am seeking a better treatment and the possible causes of this crappy condition, which seems to serve no practical purpose in nature other than to embarrass the hell out of you. It's not fun having to walk around with a face like a smacked bum! (pardon the simile). As a result of this I’ve tried to identify and eliminate all possible triggers, one of which is defiantly the cold, stress and friction.

I've been doing research on the causes of rosacea and I’m intrigued by the evidence that it's caused (in most cases) by a Candida bacteria overgrowth in the small intestine (SIBO).

I understand that these bacteria feed on sugars and carbohydrates so I have been trying to eliminate these out of my diet but it's bloody hard as I’m a body builder and need sugars and carbs for energy and to keep my weight up. I'm only a week or so into my new diet so it's still early days as I’ve read it can take up to a month. I've started drinking pro-biotics and I’m trying to replace the calories lost in carbs by taking in more protein. Can anyone give me any advice on this as It's robbing me of my confidence: I’m at my wits end here?

Thanks for reading.

[J-Mill]

Originally Posted by Marki

Hi everyone, I’ve been reading this forum for a while now and I though i'd join and share my experiences of rosacea.

I started with rosacea about four months ago; it started with just a small red blemish to the left of my nose. It itched a little, I thought it was just dry skin but moisturising did nothing. After a fortnight it had got much bigger and spread over my nose and to my right upper cheek. My doctor told me it was rosacea, I had to that point never heard of it. I was prescribed Doxyclycline that worked on the intense burning and moisturiser for the dry itching skin but it wasn't very effective in taking the redness away. I am seeking a better treatment and the possible causes of this crappy condition, which seems to serve no practical purpose in nature other than to embarrass the hell out of you. It's not fun having to walk around with a face like a smacked bum! (pardon the simile). As a result of this I’ve tried to identify and eliminate all possible triggers, one of which is defiantly the cold, stress and friction.

I've been doing research on the causes of rosacea and I’m intrigued by the evidence that it's caused (in most cases) by a Candida bacteria overgrowth in the small intestine (SIBO).

I understand that these bacteria feed on sugars and carbohydrates so I have been trying to eliminate these out of my diet but it's bloody hard as I’m a body builder and need sugars and carbs for energy and to keep my weight up. I'm only a week or so into my new diet so it's still early days as I’ve read it can take up to a month. I've started drinking pro-biotics and I’m trying to replace the calories lost in carbs by taking in more protein. Can anyone give me any advice on this as It's robbing me of my confidence: I’m at my wits end here?

Thanks for reading.

My advice would be to not get too obsessed with it.

First, its a huge overstatement (maybe not intended) to say that in most cases evidence shows that Rosacea is caused by a "Candida bacteria overgrowth".

There have been a couple of vague studies showing good clearance of rosacea like symptoms from a very small pool of subjects by treating small intestine bacteria overgrowth. Not all subjects benefitted from treatment but the majority in the small pool did. It bears noting that these were all people who tested positive for SIBO before the testing. It does not in any way speak to the number of rosaceans with SIBO, they may have had to test 100's or 1000's of rosaceans to find 10 who tested positive for SIBO. Further, the symptomology and diagnosis of rosacea in the study are so vague as to be of little to no help. I have asked Dr. Chu to comment on this in the last round of questions he agreed to take on so hopefully he can shed more light on this.

Rifaximin is a fairly safe drug to try for 2 weeks so if it available to you go for it.

I will say that prior to getting Rosacea I lived an extremely healthy life style, ran marthons, had a great diet. After getting it, I even tried a completely organic vegan anti-candida diet (mostly to try and help my seb derm) and spent thousands of dollars on a very good naturopath and supplements.

None of it helped me as much as not being obsessed with it. Low dose doxycycline following full dose doxy has also been significant help. Diet didn't help >me< one bit. That being said some have had success with it. The "diet" people as I call them are a small but committed group who tend to grossly overstate the efficacy of this line of self-treatment on the basis that it helped them (1 person studies as I call them). If you do some searches here you will find a number of theories ranging from the evils of meat and modern farming to not sweating enough when you eat your food. I would say that most of the diet suggestions at least don't cost you anything other than your enjoyment of food. You never know what will work for you, that is the magic of rosacea.

Far more interesting research on the cause of Rosacea imo lies in cathelicidins and their role in the pathogenesis of Rosacea. My view is that a wide spread "cure" for rosacea lies here, but I am not a doctor/chemist or microbiologist.

Good luck, and try and just live life, stress is likely the number one cause of flares.

[Melissa W]

Originally Posted by lindas

Melissa,

What did you mean by cpn protocol? I finally have an appointment with Dr. Cohen this week and will be flying to NYC on Thursday to see him. Any suggestions? I have seen more than 10 dermatologists during my 30 year struggle with rosacea and hope he can help me get it under control - nothing seems to work and topicals/moisurizers/cleansers only irritate my skin even more. I will also ask him about Rifaximin. Thanks

Hi Linda,

Dr Cohen is very good and he will be able to tell you what you should try next. He did give me alphagan drops to apply to my face for flushing so you may want to ask him about that. Re the cpn protocol I doubt he would consider it as he is not to keen on that treatment for us. He says the side effects are worse than the rosacea in most cases except severe ones. He did say if I got worse he would consider it. You can read about the cpn protocol here:
http://www.rosaceagroup.org/The_Rosa...dia+pneumoniae

If you are not on Oracea he might have you go on that and it has helped me so far. I don't know if you can tolerate topicals but if you can he will Rx that as well. I cannot so I am on no topicals per se except alphagan.

I am planning on asking him for rifaximin as well but I am not seeing him for a while. He will look it up on his computer when you are in his office if he is not familiar with the treatment. I love that he is open to things. You might want to bring a printout of any info you want him to see as well.

Good luck with your appt and let me know how it goes!!

Best wishes,
Melissa

[pca_]

Hi BoDuke! Yes it is still improved. I ordered oregano and peppermint oil from now foods at iherb.com and took three capsules daily in divided doses, sometimes I took four. First 2-3 weeks oregano oil and then I stopped that and switched to peppermint oil. I agree that enteric coated is superior in this case since it releases in the small intestine which is hard to get to unspoiled otherwise. Drinking homemade kefir every day is ideal since it provides alot of friendly bacteria. I been drinking kefir every morning for four months.

Originally Posted by BoDuke

pca, what dosages did you take of each? is your rosacea still greatly improved? oil of oregano has outstanding anti-microbial properties. i take the sublingual form daily and notice wicked die off within hours almost every time. however, it seems like enteric coated would be superior to the sublingual form for sibo. i would be willing to try the natural route in that i don't think it would interfere with my c. pneumoniae protocol. it is also important to remember that there can be hydrogen and methane producing bacterial overgrowth in the intestines. rifaximin is active against the hydrogen producing forms. this means that rifaximin would not benefit everyone with sibo. oil of oregano and peppermint oil would cover both types of bacterial overgrowth, in theory. i just don't know what dosages it would take to eradicate sibo.