Rosacea, a common disorder of the facial skin, affects about 14 million Americans. However, 78 percent of Americans have no knowledge of this disease, according to a survey.
Not only do most Americans not recognize the disorder, but they also don’t know how to treat it. Rosacea causes red-faced, acne-like effects, which can result in psychological and social problems if left untreated.
Many patients use topical creams as a treatment. According to a study, Nix (Permethrin 5%) cream, which is traditionally used to treat lice, was found to be an alternative to the topical treatment of rosacea, as researchers found Nix to be superior to Metrogel 0.75% gel.
Journal Family Practice March 2003;52(3):183-4
If you haven’t heard of rosacea before, don’t feel bad--most people haven’t. Rosacea is the term that has been given to an acne-type condition that is most predominant in women and on their cheeks.
Notice how the rash is in a "butterfly distribution" with the body of the butterfly centered over the nose. Most milder cases are only on the cheeks.
Nearly all traditional approaches involve the use of antibiotics. The safer ones restrict themselves to topical applications. Metrogel would be the standard that most doctors use for this problem.
The researchers conducting the above study somehow got the brilliant idea to use Nix topically to treat this. Amazingly this worked. However, it is not something I would have ever advised or suggested. Why?
Nix is designed to kill higher-level organisms like lice, which more closely resemble humans than do bacteria. As a result, Nix is toxic, as some sites show, especially if used everyday.
So if you have rosacea please listen up. I don’t guarantee many things, but this one I will:
Drugs are not the answer, especially topical Nix.
Fortunately, rosacea is typically quite an easy problem to treat. More than half the time it responds to the elimination of grains, primarily wheat, and sugars from the diet.
Fine-tuning involves eating for your metabolic type and addressing the emotional stresses in your life, as these will cause impairment in the immune system that will make rosacea more difficult to control. My new book, Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Program, gives you everything you need to know to boost your immune system to fight conditions like rosacea and more, and even gives you a basic test to determine your individual nutritional type.
In terms of the emotional side of things, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) works remarkably well in resolving emotional challenges. I use this psychological acupressure technique routinely in my practice and find that it works better than any other traditional or alternative method I have tried.
For step-by-step instructions on how to perform this effective technique view my free EFT manual.
It is very rare when the rosacea of patients I treat doesn’t rapidly resolve. I am confident that the above recommendations are valid and will resolve the problem for most people who struggle with this cosmetic challenge