Rosacea and common food triggers

Sometimes I feel that I'm alone in my misery when I think about the frequent ugly, embarrassing and painful bouts of Rosacea I am stricken with. Then I remind myself that even as I type this there are an estimated 45 million other people around the globe experiencing the same "I desperately want to avoid the world" feeling.

Are you unlucky enough to be one of those people? If so, you have my sympathy, I know EXACTLY what you're going through.

We have probably tried the same remedies and cures that the pharmacy has to offer, and been equally as disappointed in them. I've tried potions and creams from alternative healers, the 'best' anti-bacterial prescriptions and even a couple of 'miracle supplements'! At best some offered a minor relief, but the outbreaks would always rush back with a vengeance.

Recently, I have been paying close attention to my diet. I have been pouring over the books at the city library and trawling the internet looking for information and inspiration and I've discovered a few interesting things.

It seems that foods that are high in unprocessed enzymes, such as fruit, raw vegetables and seeds can massively reduce Rosacea symptoms. Although, if you cook those same foods, then the benefits are reduced to almost zero. This is because when raw foods are exposed to temperatures above 118 degrees, they start to rapidly break down and are no longer able to provide the function for which they were designed

With this in mind, I have bought myself a juicer and am consuming glass after glass of pure nutrient packed, slightly scary looking, sludge coloured juices.

My research also highlighted to me some of the foods which either contribute to Rosacea or are an out-and-out trigger.

A food such as alcohol, chilli, curry, red meat and, this breaks my heart… chocolate. should be eaten sparingly. As should cheese, sour cream, yogurt, citrus fruit, liver, vanilla, soy sauce, yeast extract (though bread is OK), vinegar, eggplant, avocados, spinach, broad-leafed beans and pods, and foods high in histamine or niacin

I have seen, on lots of web sites, that red meat should be limited to one or maybe two portions a week. This is something to do with the acids in it, although meat doesn't seem to be one of my triggers.

Alcohol is another 'sometimes it's a trigger' and sometimes it isn't' type of food. In fact it is fair to say that a massive Rosacea trigger for one sufferer may not affect another at all.

The two best pieces of advice I can pass along from my Rosacea verses food research is that you should carefully monitor exactly what you eat, when you eat it and correlate this with when you have an attack. Maybe keep a food diary. Pretty soon you will see a pattern emerge which will show you just what your own personal Rosacea triggers are.

The second piece of advice I can offer is, if you just can't do without one of your trigger foods (Mmmm chocolate…) then try taking an antihistamine or an aspirin a couple of hours before eating. It MAY control the severity of your flare ups.