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There are two major causes of rosacea, in my opinion. The first is a genetic predisposition to develop veins and redness from the sun. The second is the SUN, which I believe is the biggest factor. Why do I believe this? People with rosacea acquire facial veins very easily from sun exposure. These veins occur from sun exposure, but not the sun exposure you think of when you think of the sun. I'm not talking about the sun we get on a beach or an amusement park. It's the sun exposure we get every single day when we aren't paying attention. We are exposed to the sun while driving in our car, while walking around, going to and from our homes. |
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If you look at patients with rosacea who drive a lot their symptoms are usually much worse on the left side of their face. This tells us that UVA, the non-burning rays of the sun, are probably a big contributor to rosacea. Car window glass blocks UVB, but not UVA.
So we acquire these veins from the sun, and people with rosacea have a predisposition to developing them, but once we acquire these veins they tend to be much more reactive than other veins in our body.
Facial Veins Become Highly Reactive All veins have arterials that allow blood to come in and keep the blood from coming out. Those arterials are much more reactive in the veins we acquire from the sun, so when we drink coffee, drink hot liquids or alcohol, and exercise we're much more likely to flush and blush in those facial veins acquired from the sun. That's really what rosacea is.
In addition to flushing and blushing, once we acquire all these veins in our face, it changes the characteristics of our facial skin. So we are much more likely to get pimples that also are a part of rosacea. So now not only do we get spider veins in our face and diffused generalized redness, but we can also get acne-type pimples.
Rosacea can even affect our eyes, a condition known as ocular rosacea, which has symptoms like itching and burning of the eyes. An eye doctor can tell you if you have eye rosacea or ocular rosacea.
Failure to treat rosacea will result in an increase in symptoms and flare-ups over time.
What Factors Can Cause a Flare-up? There are a number of factors that cause rosacea flare-ups. Drinking alcohol, drinking coffee, drinking other hot beverages, eating hot soup, spicy foods, certain topical products, exercising or even going in the cold can cause the arterials, which regulates how much blood goes into these extra blood vessels, to dilate and temporarily make rosacea look worse.
Where, in my opinion, none of these triggers permanently affect rosacea, in the short term they can make people look much redder and cause a flare-up of symptoms including the acne-type bumps that come with rosacea. So they are temporary triggers.
Prevention: Sun Avoidance is Imperative As people with rosacea acquire facial veins very easily from the sun, preventing sun exposure is crucial. Also, 71% of UVA light comes through car windows, so clear UVA & UVB blocking film can be installed on car windows to prevent exposure while driving.
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