Triggers For Rosacea - Coffee And Chocolate

As a Rosacea sufferer, you are fully aware of just how uncomfortable and painful this condition can be. Even doing simple everyday tasks can become a problem. The continuous embarrassing flare ups can leave you unable or unwilling to even venture outside your house until the attack has subsided. Maybe you have tried the prescription medications recommended by your doctor, but like many Rosacea patients you are unimpressed by the results. That is why you have to start considering natural remedies for Rosacea. This short article aims to help you discover what your own triggers for Rosacea are, enabling you to finally get your Rosacea under control.

Triggers For Rosacea - Coffee And Chocolate

If I were to ask you for a list of your favorite foods and luxury indulgences I bet that coffee and chocolate would be on it.

Unfortunately, for Rosacea sufferers these two foodstuffs, which most of us take for granted and probably included in our daily diet, could be the reasons that we are experiencing so many Rosacea flare ups.

Both of the foods are well known triggers for Rosacea.

As well as having some common ingredients that act as triggers for Rosacea, individually they both have specific properties which is known to trigger Rosacea outbreaks.

Let's look first at one of the ingredients that is common to both coffee and chocolate, caffeine.

There are a number of ways that caffeine can induce Rosacea. It is known to increase stress levels and also dehydrate the skin, which have both been proved to increase Rosacea flare ups. Caffeine also increases sebum output on the skin. Sebum, is the oily substance secreted by the sebaceous glands which, put simply, make our skin waterproof However, if too much sebum is deposited on the surface of the skin, it could block up the pores and allow a bacterial infection to take hold.

Next let's look at the specific effects of chocolate and coffee can have on Rosacea patients on their own.

Chocolate

Thirty-three percent of Rosacea sufferers claimed that chocolate was their known trigger for Rosacea. This could largely be due to two of the ingredients of chocolate, Theobromine and Tyramine. One of these, Theobromine, increases blood flow through the body, whilst the other, Tyramine, ultimately expands the bloods vessels. These two factors, working in tandem, will often lead to the flushing and red face that we all associate with a Rosacea flare up.

Coffee

As well as the obvious caffeine issue, coffee can also present a problem to Rosacea sufferers simply because of the temperature that it is served at.

Hot drinks are known to induce a Rosacea flare ups in forty-two percent of patients. This seems to be because that brain perceives that temperature in the mouth as representative of the whole body. To try to dissipate this heat it will dilate the blood vessels close to the surface of the skin. Unfortunately, for Rosacea sufferers, a by-product of this function is often a heavy flushing and a red face.

Luckily though, we do not have to give up our guilty pleasures completely. Try substituting chocolate for carob-chocolate, which is delicious, or eat better quality chocolate with a high cocoa mass. 85% dark chocolate is generally OK and has the added benefit of being high in anti-oxidants and low in sugar. And if you can't bare to be without your morning coffee, then substitute your normal brew for a de-caffeinated blend and wait for it to cool off before you drink it.

There is a good chance that these foods are one of your triggers for Rosacea, so by simply following this advice you could be on your way to finally find a permanent Rosacea cure.

If you are fed up to the back teeth of being given the same old boring Rosacea advice... you know, stuff like "Don't use perfumed soaps" and "Drink lots of water" and even "try meditating" and... "Blah, Blah, Blah", then...


By Joanne Faulkner
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6181932