antibiotics

People suffering from rosacea who are treated with antibiotics for a long period of time are more prone to fungal infections. The use of antibiotics for a long period of time can decrease normal populations of bacteria and increase the number of fungi.

Most treatments have side effects, these vary from person to person and depend on a number of factors, including diet. A treatment that works for one person with little or no side effects will not work for another person. Doses also vary from person to person and are also affected by a number of factors.

Diet:

A person can usually enjoy or eat one type of yogurt, which helps maintain the balance of bacteria in their diet and can therefore help decrease the bacterial population in the gut. Another person may eat small amounts of herbs and spices known to have antibacterial properties. Garlic is well known as a natural antibiotic and antibacterial with reports going back throughout history. It has been suggested that it could help fight acne, and a report on its use for rosacea also suggests that this could be the case.

Herbal remedies work for some people: It is suggested that a significant problem with herbal remedies for rosacea sufferers may be the variable ‘natural dosage’ if the herb or spice is not made into a tablet with a known dose.

Garlic

A person with severe rosacea for about 5 years had pulsed light treatment, antibiotic treatment, and had gluten removed from their diet. Gluten elimination eliminated most but not all rosacea. The person then got a nasty infection and started taking nine garlic tablets a day for about a week and then cut back to 6 a day. They say, “The rosacea was pretty much gone and they even went on a gluten binge on Thanksgiving, and drank red wine without having a breakout.”

Analyzing why this worked for this person: The Gluten-Free Diet: Various articles on the internet suggest that a gluten-free diet helps when the digestive system has been affected by antibiotics. Therefore, this may have helped because the person was taking antibiotics. It is suggested that a gluten-free diet helps the intestine return to normal after antibiotic treatment.

Garlic tablets.

Be careful if you try garlic, it is reported to be a trigger for around 10% of patients.

It is suggested that the garlic tablets worked for several reasons:

1) The use of garlic tablets after antibiotic treatment and a gluten-free diet can be significant. Perhaps after the other treatments had taken effect but not cured the rosacea. The use of antibiotics would not have been a long-term solution.

Perhaps garlic tablets were then the equivalent of the ‘last straw’. On their own before the other treatments, they may not have cured rosacea. This is speculative, they could have been effective. Clinical trials are needed to answer this question and also to identify whether garlic produced a lasting cure, as is expected to have been the case.

Garlic, like many natural herbs and spices that are antibacterial, does not affect ‘good bacteria’, which is why most people can eat and enjoy herbs and spices. Therefore, the person who was now going to take the garlic tablet long-term should have been able to.

2) The dose of garlic was controlled by the use of tablets. Consider eating garlic pizza slices; having 2 slices instead of 1 will double the dose. This would be the equivalent of the person taking 18 tablets instead of 9.

One chef can add three times the amount of garlic as another. This combined with the above would be the equivalent of one person taking 54 tablets instead of 9

One chef may use concentrated garlic from a tube, another may use pressed garlic cloves. Again, the amount of garlic in a slice will vary significantly.

The active ingredient in garlic cloves will also vary depending on when and where it was grown and the ‘variety’. All plants and fruits have different varieties, for example consider the different varieties of apple.

The use of garlic tablets allowed the dose to be precisely maintained for the first week and then precisely reduced by 1/3.

The garlic seemed to help the rosacea that affected the eyes – the person had very bad rosacea and had horribly lumpy cheeks at the worst time, it also affected his eyes and he used moisturizing eye drops five or more times a day. Since the garlic tablets, they have barely needed to use the moisturizing eye drops. There may be a reason for this related to how the smells of onions and garlic can make the eyes water.

If a person eats a lot of garlic, the smell can actually ‘come out of the skin’ and that person may have a ‘garlic’ smell.

So it’s likely that garlic in the body manages to reach the skin of the eyelids and perhaps the tears or tear ducts, in which case the sensitive nerve that ends on the surface of the eye (which reacts when you peel onions ) and this smell touches them) send a message to the brain that ‘waters the eyes’.

Addendum: Another rosacea sufferer who was warned that garlic could be a trigger says, “I feel like the garlic doesn’t really bother my skin. It may be that I eat it mostly as part of an oily salad dressing.” In any case, I’ve been wondering if garlic might actually be helping, as it’s known to have some antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal properties.”