Q: Is wine used in cooking, wherein the alcohol has evaporated, still considered a rosacea trigger?
A. It stands to reason that wine may not affect your rosacea if the alcohol is removed in cooking. However, as with all rosacea triggers, what affects one person may not affect another. If wine affects your rosacea, the only way to know for sure whether its residue in cooking is also a trigger is to try it to determine your sensitivity.
Q. Is any information available on using anti-inflammatory medications to calm rosacea symptoms?
A. Many drugs are used to reduce inflammation, but their applicability for rosacea is unknown. Anti-inflammatory medications used for arthritis, known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), have no known effect on rosacea. At this time, clinical studies in this area are indicated. Long-term use of topical steroids to reduce inflammation, on the other hand, may actually cause rosacea-like signs and symptoms.
Oral antibiotics and long-term topical therapy are commonly prescribed to treat rosacea.1 Although it is not precisely understood why these medications are effective in reducing the signs of rosacea, it is believed to be a result of their anti-inflammatory action, rather than their antibacterial properties.
Specific questions about medical treatment should always be discussed with your doctor.
Associated Reference
- Powell FC. Rosacea. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;352:793-803.