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ElaineA

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Everything posted by ElaineA

  1. Good surface diagnosis checking for demodex. However, testing for an underlying case of SIBO would have provided additional interesting information. Also comparing the types of immune system issues observed with those also found in SIBO could provide a better understanding of the types of immune system changes that allow the demodex to get overpopulated.
  2. Its not just what the cosmetics are made of that cause additional problems with wearing makeup while having a demodex overpopulation. The tools the products are applied with can make it worse. Take mascara. Typically the brush wand is stored in the tube of mascara. As you apply the mascara to the eyelashes, it is picking up demodex and demodex eggs. Then you put the wand back in the tube. Now the mascara is infested with demodex. Eye shadow sponge applicators can pick up demodex and eggs. Foundation or tinted moisturizers sometimes use the sponge applicators which are fixed to the bottle lids. Once the base makeup layer is applied that sponge applicator goes back in the bottle possibly carrying demodex and demodex eggs. The next time the product is applied to the face, the user is also applying demodex to their face. Just sticking fingers into a wide mouth jar of moisturizer repeatedly while applying it to the face could contaminate the product with demodex. Most types of makeup products have some type of grease (i.e. lipids, oils, etc) to moisturize. Depending on what is in the product, it may allow the demodex to survive to contaminate the face when used again. Best to get foundation/moisturizer products in tubes.
  3. Nice hand waving survey article -). The authors missed an important paper in the their literature survey showing that treating SIBO cleared the Rosacea in a large number of patients. https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(12)02330-4/fulltext It does point out several problems with current diagnostic techniques or the lack thereof. Many dermatologists just do a "10 second glance exam" to diagnose skin issues. The fast visual exam is followed by an almost automatic writing of harsh prescriptions that destroy the skin's microbiome. They need to change their diagnosis and treatment approach. They need to do actual diagnostic tests to confirm or disprove their diagnoses. Once an accurate diagnosis is made, then select the most appropriate method of solving the real skin problem. That diagnostic approach should reduce the use of expensive but ineffective products. It should also reduce the use of overly harsh products that destroy the skin's microbiome causing more problems than they solve.. Patients should see quicker and better results.
  4. There is a really good option, Hypochlorous Acid (HOCL) spray to treat surface skin infections caused by bad bacteria, fungus, viruses or juvenile demodex skin mites. HOCL is a chemical produced by the human body in response to infections. HOCL is a very weak acid but a VERY strong antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and kills juvenile demodex skin mites. HOCL has been shown to break up biofilm on the surface of the skin. HOCL is non-irritating but very potent killing 23 strains of bad bacteria in one study. HOCL does not kill the "good" bacteria that is a normal and healthy part of the skin's environment. HOCL is used to sanitize hospital ICUs and operating rooms, medical and dental offices. The medical industry has used HOCL since WWI to clean battlefield wounds when they didn't have antibiotics. Tattoo artists and Piercers recommend HOCL spray to their clients to help them heal up clean. HOCL is non-irritating to the skin and eyes. HOCL spray has no preservatives. HOCL is made by putting electrodes into salt water. There are no other ingredients but HOCL, a pinch of salt and water, so its super safe, non-irritating and highly effective. Zero safety warnings. You can buy it on Amazon. There are numerous brands that are good including Heyedrate, Occusoft Hypochlor and BrioTech. I've used the others but currently use BrioTech since it is very affordable. Currently its $11.95 for a 4 ounce bottle. This is the same brand that the Tattoo Artists and Piercers recommend to their clients to heal without infection. Here';s the Amazon link: Instructions: Apply after washing your face. Spray on face and beard (if present). Lightly massage it in with clean fingers. You can use this spray as often as you like (during the day as well as right after washing the face).
  5. Medical studies on treatment for patients with Demodex diagnosed as Rosacea, Demodicosis or Demodectic Rosacea. The first 3 articles identify patients with positive demodex overpopulation. The 4 article identifies rosacea patients with SIBO. The gold standard test for SIBO is the endoscope test. A thin tube is inserted through the mouth, through the stomach and into the small intestine, A fluid sample is collected from the small intestine and cultured for bacteria or fungus. Based on the clear scientific results of this test, a very specific diagnosis can identify the bacteria or fungus causing the skin issues. Once the underlying microbe(s) are identified, the doctor can choose the best treatment to successfully clear the skin condition. 1. Patient misdiagnosed with bacterial acne and treated with Accutane. Initially the treatment appeared successful BUT the patient quickly relapsed after treatement with Accutane ended. Identification of overpopulation of demodex skin mites and treatment with Oral Ivermectin cleared the patients skin. Follow up not performed so the patients long term treatment success is unknown. SIBO diagnosis not mentioned. Accutane will temporarily reduce the population of demodex by greatly reducing the oil they eat, starving the population down. Once the Accutane is stopped, the mite population frequently rebounds. The Accutane just treats the symptoms. It doesn't kill the demodex. A rebound after Accutane happened to the patient in this medical study - treatment with Oral Ivermectin cleared up his skin: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5489393/ 2. Treatment of 12 year old with demodicosis for a year. A single dose of Oral Ivermectin cleared her skin. Initially the patient was treated with doxycyclin which appeared to help during the first round of treatment. Doxycyclin was not effective the second time it was tried. A single dose of oral ivermectin cured her skin condition. Long term followup not mentioned. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/1784334 3. 2013 Medical study comparing the treatments using Oral Ivermectin alone versus Oral Ivermectin + Oral Metrondiazole. The authers could not explain why Oral Metronidazole improved the patients outcome. Subsequent scrutiny indicates that Oral Metronidazole is highly effective against at least 2 of the bacteria that cause SIBO. Oral Metronidazole is 99% effective at treating Bacteriodes and Eggerthella Lenta. While the patients in 2013 were not tested for SIBO, it is likely that for many, SIBO was causing the immune system malfunction that allowed the demodex to become so overpopulated. Treatment with Oral Metronidazole cleared the SIBO allowing the skin to heal. The Oral Ivermectin doses killed the overpopulation of demodex skin mites allowing for faster healing. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197121201315X 4. Interestingly, it was reported in JAMA in 1985 that Oral Metronidazole was highly efffective in treating rosacea: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/545882 5. Use of Rifaximin in the treatment of rosacea. Rifaximin is a very expensive antibiotic. Rifaximin is highly successful at treating some types of E Coli. However, to successfully treat other types of SIBO bacteria, a different antibiotic should be used. NOTE: SIBO was diagnosed in many of these rosacea patients. However, the actual bacteria causing each patient's SIBO was not identified or reported. Rifaximin is not the best antibiotic to treat some types of SIBO bacteria. For effective clearing of SIBO induced Rosacea, the correct antibiotic needs to be selected based on the actual bacteria causing the patients SIBO. https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(12)02330-4/fulltext#:~:text=Of the patients with SIBO%2C 28 were treated with rifaximin,and SIBO reported marked improvement.
  6. Lets put things in perspective here. Oral Metronidazole was first introduced in 1960. Oral Metronidazole is a highly effective drug against certain types of bacteria and parasites. Hundreds of millions of doses of this drug have been given over the last 61 years. Oral Metronidazole is on the WHO's list of 100 essential medications. In general, Oral Metronidazole has a good safety record. In the papers mentioned above, 6 people out of tens of millions are reported as having a RARE, serious reaction to Oral Metronidazole, most after prolonged use. While this was certainly a serious situation for the people that it happened to, it doesn't mean that everyone is in danger of this complication. Taking any antibiotic for a prolonged period of time is generally not advisable. Almost every medication out there has serious side effects for some people. I was given the antibiotic Minocin (minocycline) for 6-8 years by 4 different dermatologists who all misdiagnosed Rosacea Subtype 2 as bacterial acne. My Rosacea Subtype 3 was misdiagnosed as allergic conjunctivitis. Eventually, the Minocin triggered Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) that didn't stop until I stopped taking the drug. Decades later my Rosacea Subtype 2 and 3 became severe. 2 weeks on the Oral Ivermectin + Oral Metronidazole treatment cured it. I had zero bad side effects to either the Oral Ivermectin or the Oral Metronidazole. It became obvious after the fact that I also had had the symptoms of Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) since I was a teenager. The Oral Ivermectin killed the demodex skin mites that SIBO had allowed to become severely over-populated. The Oral Metronidazole cured the SIBO which fixed the Rosacea. 3.5 years later I'm still clear after decades of fighting skin, eye and abdominal issues.
  7. 2 studies, one on hot coffee and one on hot tea, both alleged to cause or trigger rosacea or flushing. Neither study tested any other drink including food neutral hot water. It is possible that in both cases the heat caused the issues with rosacea symptoms like flushing rather than the specific drink. It is possible to find meaningless statistical correlations between a common food or beverage and a common disease. A better test would have been to compare drinking hot beverages vs. drinking the same beverage at room temperature vs. drinking hot water vs. drinking room temperature water.
  8. Recent medical research studies have shown that at least 50-60% of people with Rosacea Subtype 2 also have tested positive for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) caused by bacteria emitting Hyrdrogen or Methane gas. Treatment with the right antibiotic to target the bacteria causing the SIBO resulted in clearance for the majority of the studies rosacea patients who tested positive for SIBO. SIBO can be caused by a variety of different bacteria. Different antibiotics work depending on the bacteria causing the SIBO. Medical study paper using Rifaximin can be found here: https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(16)30014-7/pdf Study Limitations: 1. The study used the older 2 gas SIBO breath test which tested for Hydrogen or Methane gas only. The third type of SIBO gas, Hydrogen Sulfide, was not included in the older 2 gas SIBO test. In 2020, Researchers at Cedar Sinai came up with a new test for Hydrogen Sulfide SIBO. One company offering a new Hydrogen Sulfide test for SIBO is here: https://www.triosmartbreath.com/ 2. Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth (SIFO) has the same symptoms as SIBO. Tests for SIFO were not conducted. Since the root cause is a fungal overgrowth, an oral anti-fungal drug would be necessary to eliminate the fungus. An antibiotic would not work for SIFO. 3. Only one antibiotic was used to treat all patients in the above study. The very expensive antibiotic Rifaximin was used for treatment regardless of the bacteria causing the SIBO. Rifaximin is excellent for at least 3 types of bacteria including non-bloody Traveler's diarrhea causing E. Coli, Enterococcus, and Staphylococcus aureus. Rifaximin while considered a broad spectrum antibiotic is less effective against other types of bacteria like Klebsiella and Enterobacter. Other antibiotics like the very inexpensive Oral Metronidazole are highly effective against Bacterioides and Eggerthella Lenta which are also known to cause SIBO. An earlier medical study report showed that an inexpensive, combined 2 drug, 2 week treatment with Oral Ivermectin + Oral Metronidazole was highly effective at clearing or greatly reducing demodex skin mites for patients with various rosacea symptoms who also tested positive for demodex skin mites. This 2 drug treatment was compared to treatment with Oral Ivermectin only and was far more effective. At the time of the study, the reason adding Oral Metronidazole to the Oral Ivermectin treatment was unknown. Now it is clear that the Oral metronidazole was treating an underlying SIBO condition. Medical study paper from the May 2013 issue of The International Journal of Infectious Diseases: https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...0197121201315X
  9. I am so happy to hear the Borax - Epsom Salt soak is helping you! Thank you for letting us know. It is also helpful to know that the Equate Brand Epsom Salt works - always good to save money. Please keep us posted as to how this works out for you. That shared knowledge can help us all.
  10. Trillium. Soolantra is a 1% Ivermectin cream in the "soothing" Cetaphil like base according to a post by Galderma. The tricky bit with the 1% liquid solution is that adding it to the cream base will dilute it more so that the resulting mix is less than 1%. If its already 1% you may actually best use the liquid solution directly onto clean skin. Try a few drops on the palm and smooth it on the face like a thin facial serum. The 1% liquid is the right strength to be effective already. Let it dry. Optionally you could apply a moisturizer like Cetaphil or whatever you prefer after the Ivermectin solution dries. That should help eliminate the messy issues with the horse paste. As Brady says, your best bet to make a 1% mix would be to use the Ivermectin powder. I'm not sure what the Percent strength of the powder is - if its mixed with something it might be less than 100% pure. The percentage will impact how much Cetaphil cream to mix with the powder. To be a match for the strength of Soolantra the ratio should dilute the powder to 1% strength when mixed with the Cetaphil. You only have to use the Soolantra once per day at night - that is when the mites are active. So there shouldn't be any need to wear it under makeup during the day. That may help with the makeup issue. I totally agree with you about the absurd costs. Ivermectin has been a generic drug for quite some time and is not that expensive. By my rough calculations Soolantra has less than $20 worth of Ivermectin per tube. So selling it for $600+ per tube is obscene.' ElaineA
  11. Here are some treatment options for demodex skin mites. I did the combined 2 week oral therapy with Oral Ivermectin * Oral Metronidazole. It worked after years of being misdiagnosed with acne (bacterial) and "allergic conjunctivitis" and given quite a variety of useless antibiotics, retinoids and prescription benzoyl peroxide that didn't work. 8+ months after this treatment my skin and eyes are still clear - first time in many years. This oral prescription treatment was published in the May 2013 issue of the International Journal of Infectious Diseases. The combined 2 drug treatment was more effective than oral Ivermectin alone.Using the more effective 2 drug combined treatment (from paper) based on body weight for the oral Ivermectin:1. Two doses of oral Ivermectin one week apart. Each weekly dose is 200 micrograms Ivermectin per kilogram of body weight. My doctor rounded the dose up some since they tablets are 3 mg - that avoided having to break tablets. Worked out to 12 mg per dose for me. Take on an empty stomach with a large glass of water.2. Oral Metronidazole, 250 mg. three times a day for two weeks. Do not drink alcohol while taking oral Metronidazole and for 72 hours after taking the last tablet.I didn't have any problems with either drug. Although, the first dose of Ivermectin did make me sleepy. Got a great 2 hour nap out of it. Cost: With insurance copay just $13.03 or about $52 full retail. Here's some links to the May 2013 Journal of Infectious Diseases article:Summary of results:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23294870Full Journal Article:https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...0197121201315XIt may be wiser to try the Ivermectin first instead of the Roacutane. Roacutane shuts down the oil glands which will reduce the oil eating mite population by starving some of them. But Roacutane will not kill all of the mites. A lot of people seem to have rebound problems after completing the Roacutane treatment. Roacutane also has a lot of serious side effects. Roacutane treatment takes months longer as well. Additional topical treatments effective against demodex skin mites:A tea tree oil facial cleanser and overnight tea tree oil moisture cream or tea tree oil ointment can also provide topical support to kill the mites, especially at night. The male mites come out on the skin surface at night to mate. Tea Tree oil can kill the mites or at the very least ruin their love life.Tea Tree Oil cleansers:1. The Body Shop Tea Tree Skin Clearing Facial Wash (liquid). Available from The Body Shop store or online, or Amazon.2. The Body Shop Tea Tree Clearing Foaming Cleanser. Available from The Body Shop store or online, or Amazon.3. Desert Essence Thoroughly Clean Face Wash - Available at Kroger, Sprouts, Amazon4. Tranquil Eyes 1% (or 2%) Gentle Formula Tea Tree Eyelid and Facial Cleanser by eyeEco - Available at AmazonTea Tree Oil Moisturizer or Ointment - 5% Tea Tree Oil is a good minimum1. Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil Skin Ointment - Available at Sprouts, Amazon2. Derma e Tea Tree and Vitamin E Relief Cream - Available at Sprouts, Amazon3. The Body Shop Tea Tree Night LotionWarning: Tea Tree Oil should never be used at full strength - it can burn and it can be toxic if ingested. It should be diluted with another carrier oil like grapeseed oil or castor oil to no stronger than 50% - even that may be too strong for sensitive skin. 5-10% is the strongest that most face washes or night cremes will contain.Hypochlorous acid sprays can also help. Hypochlorous acid is a mild acid and a natural antiseptic, the same as made by the human body in response to a cut or scrape. It kills mites especially in the nymph stage. (Heyedrate and Occusoft are 2 brands available from Amazon). Spray face and eyelids and let dry prior to putting on the nightly moisturizer/ointment. If your face feels itchy in the middle of the night, spray again. Borax Treatments:Borax DIY shampoo (1 TBSP of 20 Mule Team Borax (grocery store laundry aisle) per cup of hot water, mix in hot water and stir, cool and pour in a clean shampoo bottle) can also be used to wash hair and face. Borax shampoo is a no lather shampoos, use the same as you would any shampoo. Borax kills the mites. Demodex skin mites may also cause what appears to be body acne as well as tchy skin. The mites can make your skin itch - this borax soak will soothe the skin by killing the mites. Borax bath soaks can be very helpful in treating demodex that has spread to other parts of the body. Bath body soak below is for a standard 5 foot bathtub: 1. Start filling tub with pleasantly warm bath water. Do not make the water too hot as that can over heat you. 2. Add 1 cup 20 Mule Team Borax (available in the laundry aisle at most grocery stores about $5.50 per box). 3. Add 1 cup Dr. Teal's Epsom Salts (Coconut Oil version is good to aid skin moisture). 4. Swish water to dissolve the Borax and the Epsom Salts. 5. Soak for 30 minutes. Wash your hair and face too and let the solution stay on the face and hair while you soak. 6. Shower after soaking, rinsing hair too, conditioning hair if needed. Reply to this Topic There is a reply to this topic button somewhere on the device you are reading this post. If you never heard about this topic and you learned about it here first, wouldn't it be a gracious act on your part to show your appreciation for this topic by registering with just your email address and show your appreciation with a post? And if registering is too much to ask, could you post your appreciation for this topic by finding the START NEW TOPIC button in our guest forum where you don't have to register? We know how many have viewed this topic because our forum software shows the number of views. However, most rosaceans don't engage or show their appreciation for our website and the RRDi would simply ask that you show your appreciation, please, simply by a post.
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