Rosacea affects a huge number of people across the world, with somewhere between 1 in 10/1 in 20 in the UK and US suffering from the condition. But can something as simple as drinking water help?
Anyone with rosacea will have a list of triggers that set off their flares! Although not everyone is affected in the same way by the same triggers, a significant proportion of rosacea sufferers will notice how, for example, a glass of wine, a hot bath, a spicy meal or a sunny day will make their face hot, inflamed or irritated.
So the first step in any management plan for rosacea will involve identifying your own particular no-nos and deciding what to do with that information: while some rosacea sufferers can tolerate a steamy bath or a cocktail, it may be that you cannot touch a drop of alcohol, but you can eat as much curry as you like! Everyone is different, and everyone’s decisions about what they are or are not prepared to cope with are also different.
So once you’ve identified your triggers and have strategies in place for managing or avoiding them, what else can you do to actively strengthen your body’s defences against rosacea? Well, living with rosacea can definitely involve changing your routines, so you get into habits which will make your body - and particularly your skin - healthier and stronger, so that rosacea flares are not just less frequent, but less severe when they do (almost inevitably) occur.
Alongside getting a good nutritious diet, changing your skincare to the mildest possible, getting gentle (rather than sweaty!) exercise, as much sleep as possible and finding strategies for managing stress, keeping yourself hydrated is a useful habit to get into. Your skin needs moisture inside and out; the knock-on effect of your whole body being dehydrated is that your skin cells aren’t plump and strong in the way they need to be to maintain a healthy skin barrier. A fragile or damaged skin barrier can lead to more irritants getting through and causing inflammation, spots and rosacea flares, as well as further damage to an already delicate epidermis.
So drinking enough water daily is an important part of your overall strategy to keep rosacea at bay. It might also mean you’re drinking fewer drinks that can cause active damage to rosacea-prone skin - the teas, coffees, glasses of wine, fizzy drinks and dairy drinks that so many rosacea-sufferers react to!
Make sure the water is cool and pure: it won’t ‘cure’ rosacea, but it can be a useful way of keeping yourself as fit as possible in the fight against it!
For more information about rosacea and how to manage it, see our blog on Rosacea Awareness Month.
Recommended products for rosacea-prone skin:
Balmonds Skin Salvation
with hemp and beeswax
Balmonds Daily Moisturising Cream
with shea butter and calendula
Balmonds Cooling Cream
with shea, menthol, aloe vera & lavender
Balmonds Intensive Facial Oil
with rosehip, calendula, lavender & chamomile
