Rosacea?

Does anyone here have rosacea? i was told today that I have it and have been put on "metrogel" for it... but I was just wondering if anyone else has it and what they find aggravates it etc...  <------rosacea smiley??

I have very mild rosacea (love the smiley!), and should really steer clear of overdoing it with booze. Red wine, especially. But, of course, I don't. Also, saunas can really aggravate it, but I don't like them nearly as much as I do wine, so that's OK. 

Hi Marlespo.  I've got it, too    Roacea seems to be triggered by pitta imbalance (if you are into Ayurveda at all) which means excess heat.  Here is what can aggravate it:  Spicy foods, heat, too much sun, being dehydrated (drink lots of water), stress.  You might notice it flares up around your period, too.   

I'm a real natural kind of person and usually try to treat everything with herbs and natural topical stuff as opposed to pharmaceutical stuff, but let me tell you that won't work with rosacea (it didn't for me, anyway) so make sure you use your Metrogel.  It will keep it under control beautifully.  I once got lazy because everything was looking good and back to normal so I stopped, but then it flared up!  So I put it on everyday now (once a day though, not twice seems to be enough for me).

Also, be cafeful what you wash you face with because anything harsh or with a fragarance can aggravate it.  I honestly don't even wash my face everyday, just rinse with warm water.  When I do wash it I used something my dermatologist gave me but I ran out and forget what it was called (I'd recognize the bottle, but I don't know if they have it here in the UK).  What has your dermatologist recommended you use?

I wash with Cetaphil anyway, and my metrogel came with a sample of it, so I was unintentionally starting off right! My redness is right now confined to around my nose, my chin, and starting to get worse on my cheeks. It honestly never occurred to me that it might be rosacea - and oh yes I'll be using the metrogel. I used it for the first time yesterday to no ill effect, we'll see how long it takes to make a difference. I havent had time yet to figure out what aggravates it, but he did give me a list of about a jillion things to watch for!!

Cetaphil--that's the stuff I use and ran out of! 

You should have seen me when I first got it--scary.  At first it was just around my mouth so I thought it was a food allergy or something.  It calmed down and then happened again a couple weeks later and then calmed down again.  Then when it happened again my *entire face* flared up with red, puffy bumpyiness it itched and burned like it was on fire at the same time--I was scared and looked like a ruby red grapefruit!  All I could do until I got to the dermatologist was lie down on my back with a bag of icecubes on my face.  (The homeopathic creams and lotions did little to nothing for me--I was way beyond that.)

Well within 5 days of metrolotion plus one other thing for the itching I was back to normal again--yayy pharmaceutical drugs!

Quick question regarding metrogel - do you use it morning or evening?  Do you notice a difference either way?  I was told to do it at night, but I never seem to remember and was thinking about using it during the day.

I know it's a silly question, but I had to ask.

Not a silly question at all.  I was prescribed Metrolotion but I assume Metrogel isn't too different (I could be wrong so if I am, someone let me know).  I was told to use it twice a day.  I used it in the morning on a clean face and then late afternoon when (especially in summer) I had sweated it all off.  But now my condition is so much back to normal that I only use it once a day--in the morning.  But I carry it with me in my purse just in case of a flare up.

Day seems to make more sense to me than night, but then I'm no dermatologist.  I do prefer though to have *nothing* on my face at bed-time (unless I'm having a big flare up, which doesn't happen much anymore) because that's when your skin is releasing toxins and your body is purifying itself and I feel it's best to let your skin breath and do its thing.

Thanks!

Honestly, I can't remember if it's -gel or -lotion.  Perhaps it's -goo.

metrogel is the clear gel, but they do make a wash appparently but i don't use that. I was told to use the gel once a day since mine is still quite mild, but the instrutions say something like "up to twice a day" so i think it depends on the severity.