The 5 Types of Rosacea
Identifying and understanding the type of rosacea you or your loved one has is crucial to learning how to effectively manage it.
Our answer to healing rosacea-affected skin is the Atopis Radiant Balance Cream – a steroid-free and 100% organic cream that combats rosacea symptoms; reducing redness, evens out skin tone, and calms inflammatory response.
What is Rosacea?
Rosacea is a common, chronic skin condition that presents as redness of the face.
The condition often develops in adults between the ages of 30 and 60, with those who have Celtic or Scandinavian heritage more susceptible to the condition.
The cause of rosacea is currently unknown, but research has become focused on a defective protein that is responsible for controlling blood flow. Essentially, the malformed protein can no longer control blood flow, meaning blood vessels expand, causing the skin to redden.
Here’s a short video that explores What Causes Rosacea:
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If you’re interested in learning more, we’ve written a whole blog post on what causes rosacea.
There are five main types of rosacea, each with distinct symptoms and treatments.
Types of rosacea
1. Erythematotelangiectatic Rosacea (ETR)
ETR is the most common type of rosacea, and is generally characterised by flushing of the face and dilated blood vessels.
Middle-aged women are more susceptible to developing ETR, however, there have been cases of onset during young adulthood.
Symptoms:
- Facial redness
- Flushing
- Visible blood vessels
- Sensitive skin, with a possible stinging or burning sensation
- Dry, rough and scaly appearance
While there is no cure, ETR can be managed with topical creams, antibiotics, and even laser surgery.
2. Papulopustular (acne) Rosacea
Often confused with acne, this type of rosacea presents as redness and swelling with breakouts that resemble teenage acne. While this type of rosacea can affect anyone at any stage of life, middle-aged women are most at risk.
Symptoms:
- Facial redness
- Red bumps around the nose/cheek area that appear similar to breakouts
- Oily, sensitive skin
- Visible broken blood vessels
- Raised patches of skin
Like ETR, Papulopustular (acne) Rosacea treatment depends on the severity of symptoms, and can usually be treated through topical creams or oral antibiotics.
3. Rhinophyma
This rarer form of rosacea mostly affects middle-aged males who have a family history of rosacea. It is often presented alongside another rosacea subtype.
Symptoms:
- Thick skin on nose, chin, forehead, cheeks and ears
- Large pores
- Visible broken blood vessels
Rhinophyma is a unique subtype of rosacea, therefore may not respond the same to treatment as other subtypes. Oral antibiotics are the most common form of treatment for people with rhinophyma. For more severe cases, surgery can be a form of long-term treatment.
4. Ocular Rosacea
Ocular rosacea is the subtype of rosacea that affects the eyes. Ocular rosacea can cause red, itchy, sore eyelids and irritation in the eye. This subtype is most commonly affects adults aged 30-50 years who tend to blush or flush easily.
Symptoms:
- Dry eyes
- Itchy, burning or stinging eyes
- Blurred vision
- Broken blood vessels on the eyelids
Applying creams and warm moist compresses relieve the uncomfortable symptoms of Ocular Rosacea. Antibiotics or eyedrops can also be prescribed to aid symptom relief. In more severe cases, probing can be used – a doctor puts rods into the plugged up glands to open them up.
5. Steroidal Rosacea
Steroidal rosacea is a rosacea-like condition caused by the use of potent topical steroids – or withdrawal from them. Anyone who has applied strong steroid treatments to their face, or who have taken strong oral steroid-based antibiotics. A flareup can occur whilst on steroids, or when coming off the treatment.
Symptoms:
- Small bumps and pustules
- Reddened areas that may be itchy
- Enlarged blood vessels
- Severely sensitive skin
To avoid long-term symptoms, the use of topical steroids should be discontinued. To reduce the likelihood of flareups, withdrawal should be a slow and steady process. Oral antibiotics are sometimes prescribed for several months to help with the withdrawal.
Managing rosacea-prone skin
Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for any of the rosacea subtypes – the symptoms are simply managed.
To manage symptoms:
- Avoid touching problem areas on the skin – Rosacea-prone skin is hyperactive, and touching can cause blood vessels to dilate
- Protect the skin from harsh weather conditions – Wear a scarf during winter, and remember to slip, slop, slap and wrap during summer
- Avoid topical steroids – Although this may help in the short-term with facial redness, use of potent topical steroids may cause steroid rosacea
- Moisturise – especially in the affected areas
- Limit alcohol consumption – alcohol can aggravate rosacea
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Dealing With Rosacea?
The Atopis Radiant Balance Cream is the world’s first facial moisturizer developed to break out of the rosacea cycle.
Having dealt with rosacea herself, award-winning Kiwi scientist Dr. Iona Weir decided to develop a natural solution to help others break out of the rosacea cycle. Here’s how it works:
1. Treats the symptoms
The peptides and flavonoids in Radiant Balance work to inhibit over-vasodilation of the blood vessels, and to reduce redness.
2. Inhibits bad bacteria
By mimicking the anti-microbial cathelicidin of your skin, the peptide inhibits bad bacteria, stopping those nasty infections that keep you stuck in the rosacea cycle.
3. Reduces overreactions to environmental triggers
Other peptilipids within the cream work to calm the immune system and heal the skin.
Radiant Balance contains an equivalent peptide to normal functioning cathelicidin, meaning that the faulty peptide in rosacea skin can function normally. As this is the peptide that controls blood flow to the skin and inhibits bad bacteria, the redness associated with rosacea is reduced.
