Red face (Rosacea vs Keratosis Pilaris Rubra Faceii)

AugustusMinimus

Said I might as well make this thread as the vast majority of the people in this country who have red cheeks believe they have Rosacea instead of what they actually have, and that's Keratosis Pilaris Rubra Faceii. Getting really sick of people everywhere claiming Rubra Faceii is Rosacea when it is clearly not.

Similar to Keratosis Pilaris, however in this case, the excess Keratin aggrevates the the blood vessels in your cheeks and causes them to be more visible from the surface. People with fair skin are more likely to suffer with this as it would be harder to see the blood vessels with people with darker skin.

People have have Rubra Faceii usually have a small bit of Keratosis Pilaris, usually on the backs of their upper arms.

Rosacea and Rubra Faceii are very different. Rosacea usually affects your nose, to the sides of your nose, your chin and your forehead. Rubra Faceii usually affects your cheeks, just under your nose and just under your eyes. In addition, Rosacea usually is quite blotchy while Rubra Faceii gives a much more even red skin tone.

Loads of people around the world have this condition but its more obvious due to our fair skin. Looking at people on the street, I'd say at least 30 to 40% of Irish people have this condition to some degree.

For instance, the following man, has Rosacea. Redness to the sides of the nose and on forehead.




On the other hand, here is Prince Harry, who clearly has Rubra Faceii. Red cheeks with even enough skin tone. No blotchiness or a great deal of redness in the Rosacea zone.





In addition to the redness, people with Rubra Faceii tend to blush a lot more easily than people without.


People with this who think they have Rosacea could well be wasting a lot of money on Rosacea treatments. Sadly, there aren't many ways to get rid of Rubra Faceii. One way to reduce the redness is to take an Omega 3, 6 & 9 supplement. People also advise rubbing the oil from these capsules directly onto the skin.

The only proven way to get rid of the redness is to get Pulse Dye Laser treatments. However, they aren't cheap and the bruising after each session can last up to two weeks.

delux

Does Rubra affect the eyes at all?
I *believe* I have Rosacea and when I get hot, e.g. near a radiator, my face gets flushed and my eyes start getting uncomfortable as if i have to keep them closed. This seems to be ocular Rosacea. Does Rubra have any effect like that?

Also, any connection with bad blood circulation?

AugustusMinimus

Never heard of it affecting your eyes.

Facial flushing is a common complaint for those with Rubra Faceii.

Facial flushing is actually caused by your body improving blood flow to the face in an effort to cool your body down. Its similar to sweating in that its a mechanism to reduce your body temperature.

However, for people with fair skin this effect is far more visible than for others. This is the same for people who suffer from Rubra Faceii as their fair skin shows up the condition far more than for people with darker skin.




Was watching the Aussie Open tennis this morning. Noticed that Azarenka clearly has Rubra Faceii. No redness in the T zone, but redness on both cheeks. Seems to be a very common condition in people from Ireland, UK, Scandinavia, Finland and Russia.

AugustusMinimus

Forgot to mention that drinking green tea is also thought to help the condition. If you can't stomach it, you can buy green tea extract in capsules.

Its good for you in other ways so you should be drinking it anyways