Rosacea gives dilated blood vessels and inflammation in the skin, often accomplished by infection. Most often the face is attacked and especially the convex surfaces of the face. Sometimes also the eyes or other body parts are affected. Rosacea may begin early, but distinct and serious symptoms usually develop as an individual gets older.

WHAT SYMPTOMS ARE SEEN BY ROSACEA

The primary symptoms of rosacea are the following. All the symptoms may not be present always.

- Permanent redness in the skin. This redness can get better or worse periodically.

- Flushing or redness that comes and disappears periodically.

- Telangiectasia - This is a distinct widening of small blood vessels in an area.

- Papules - Small dome-shape spots filled with fluid, often group wise.

- Skin areas with rosasea symptoms often get infected, and the infection worsens the symptoms.

- Pustules or pimples – Sometimes infection makes the papules develop into real pimples. However, if the pimples appear in a hair follicle stuffed with sebum (comedones), they are a symptom of acne, and not rosacea. Pimples from acne and rosacea may exist together.

Rosacea also implies secondary symptoms that are caused by the primary symptoms, or appear later than the primary ones.

- Burning or stinging

- Placks - elevated red areas

- Scaling, often associated with burning or stinging

- Dry skin, often occurring before scaling

- Edema coming in areas that already has been red for some time

- Symptoms from the eyes like: Redness, itching, burning, corneal damage

- Thickening of the skin, or lumps in the skin

- Distended hair follicles

- Rosacea in other places than the face

The exact causes are not known, but some people seem to inherit the tendency of developing rosacea. People that blush very often seem to develop rosacea more easily. Therefore rosacea may be caused by blood vessels that dilate too easily upon stimulation, and eventually become permanently dilated.

The following types of stimulation may cause worsening of the rosacea symptoms: heat, hot baths, strenuous exercise, sunlight, wind, very cold temperatures, hot or spicy foods and drinks, alcohol consumption, menopause, emotional stress, prolonged use of topical steroids on the skin.

Traditional medicine does not have any treatment for the basic processes of rosacea, such as redness and the blood vessel extention.

Laser treatment may be used to take away dilated blood vessels or skin irregularities by rosacea. The laser light heats and destroys the dilated blood vessels.

When infection is a part of the disease, and papules or pustules occur, rosacea is treated with antibiotics, usually applied directly on the skin, for example metronidazole. Oral treatment may also be used by severe rosacea, for example with: Tetracycline, minocycline, erythromycin, and doxycycline.

By pimple formation, you can also use rinsing skin cleansers in the same way as by acne.

On the market you can find several alternative medicines, mostly topical creams, to treat rosacea. These often contain natural oils, herbal extracts, vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants that alleviate inflammation and stimulate skin healing. They may also contain mild antiseptic agents to treat bacterial infection.

Curcumin is a curcumoid found in the Indian spice turmenic. Curcuminoids are polyphenols and these give turmenic yellow color. Curcumine consists of two phenolic units with a sie chain. The side-chains are connected by a di-ketonic group.

Curcumine is used for yellow coloration of food.

It can also be used to determine the amount of boron in a substance. The boron must first be converted to boric acid. Then curcumin is adedd. It will react with boric acid to give a red compound, rosacyanine.

Curcumin is biologically active in many ways. It is a traditional medicine in the Indian Ajurvedic arsenal. There are indications for effects of curcumin against many diseases. Many of these are under research, but conclusive evidence has not been provided yet.

Curcumine is is absorbed poorly from the intestines. Therefore high concentration in the gut is necessary for a significant portion to be absorbed. However, the concentration necessary to give effects may not be very high.

These are effects that curcumin may give against diseases.

- Curcumin may have anti-tumor activity. It is especially associated with activity against multiple myeloma, pancreatic canser, myelodysplastic syndrome and colon cancer. The effect against cancer seems to originate from induction of apoptosis (cell death from internal destructive mechanisms) in cancer cells.

- A long experience points to a strong effect of curumin against rosacea, but this specific effect is probably not yet investiaged throrrougly. The effect against rosacea can be due to an anti-inflammatory effect, since the vessel widening by rosacea is partly an inflammatory responce.

- Curcumine may have effects against psoriasis.

- Curcumine may work to slow the progression of Alzheimers disease.

- Curcumine may alleviate arthritis.

- It seems that curcymine can work against HIV-infection and herpes simplex type 1 infection by interfering with the replication of yhe HIV-virus.

- It may stimulate nerve and brain tissue to develop and regenerate. Thus it may counteract the destructive effects from stress and depression against nerve tissue.

- Combined with certain antibiotics, the combination gives better anti-bacterial properties than the antibiotic alone. These antibiotics are  cefixime, cefotaxime, vancomycin and tetracycline.,

- It seems to better the oxygen supply to tissues.

Curcumine is an anti-oxidant. It inhibits for example lipid peroxidation. It is furthet an anti-inflammatory effector. These general properties may contribute to many of the more specific effects on diseases.