Joanne Whitehead, PhD

Very interesting! Nice to see some potential useful results from the Human Microbiome Project for rosacea. The website shows that they have a phase II clinical trials of their mist product in 82 rosacea patients planned for 2017; I will be watching for these results!

Please Note:The RRDi is an Amazon Affiliate. By clicking below on the image and purchasing the item, the RRDi receives a small fee. Thanks. Please post your experience using this product in this thread. Here's something new I have tried for rosacea, on the advice of a friendly stranger: topical sulfur. Sulfur is one of the oldest known skin remedies, but of course being natural, abundant, and cheap, it's not something the drug companies bother with (https://rosacea-support.org/sulphur-still-a-classic-treatment-for-rosacea-2012-aad-san-diego.html), but as it helps to control demodex mites, yeast and bacteria, it is certainly a promising ingredient for rosaceans. As it turns out, topical sulfur products are not available over the counter in Canada, but the internet abounds with various formulations. I researched ingredient lists for as many as I could find, and zeroed in on a product called Sulfur Butter. Most of the creams and ointments I saw included objectionable ingredients, like salicylic acid (very aggravating for rosacea) or parabens (known endocrine disruptors, among other nasty effects: http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/search.php?query=paraben&search_group=ingredients&ptype2=). Sulfur is combined with sulfacetamide antibiotic in several prescription formulations (Sumadan, Plexion, Rosac, Avar etc), but who needs more antibiotics? Sulfur Butter contains only water, cocoa, coconut, shea butter, sulfur, glycerin, hemp oil, jojoba oil, avocado oil, and it's only about $7 on Amazon. I quickly found that Sulfur Butter is too drying to just rub on my face and leave on, so I've been applying it a few minutes before my shower, then washing and moisturizing as usual. And voila! Within a few days, the redness has really calmed down to almost nothing, and no new lesions have appeared. It remains to be seen whether this is a long term solution (perhaps with just occasional use), but it certainly has been the best short term product I've tried!

If I can help by writing a short introduction to give an overview of the submitted articles, that would be great. I am also happy to proofread where needed. Joanne (molecular biologist, plenty of writing experience)

Dr Cordain makes some valid points, and I understand his reasoning. Of course we are missing much in the work plan, as we can't proceed even to a preliminary application without having a principle investigator. However, at this early stage, a positive response from the MAC and corporate members would simply allow me to make the first step, which is to communicate with researchers who do have the expertise and resources to carry on a study of this type. Whether we can convince anyone to take on this project is of course a long shot, given that reserchers have their own agenda to pursue. On the off chance that we do have a positive response from a qualified specialist, then we can begin to work out the study design - what factors do we want to address and how do we want to address them. This would be mainly up to the investigator, of course, with us at RRDi giving as much support as we possibly can. I realize there is a very real possibility that this will not progress even to a preliminary application to the MLA, and that is fine. But I strongly believe there are different ways of addressing the issue. One is to have a hypothesis based on molecular mechanism, which can be tested with a direct dietary intervention. The other is to demonstrate what we (almost) all intuitively know, which is that diet affects rosacea, in a manner which would elevate this principle from anecdote to experimental data. Once we are firmly in the realm of science, we will have the credibility to make further exploration possible. These are only my personal opinions, but I think we have nothing to risk by putting the word out to scientists that we would like to pursue this line of research. This is all we are asking of our members at this point.

Point taken, but I think the idea is not to take a routine step, but to try a novel approach! There are of course widely varying incidences of rosacea across populations, but genetic factors are not the only variables. As documented by Dr Weston Price, traditional societies eating traditional diets did not suffer from rosacea or other visible chronic diseases, but within a single generation of taking on westernized diets and habits, many of the modern western diseases started to become apparent in these people. I think this argues very strongly for dietary factors. And while diets vary within a population, there is a steadily growing body of literature linking modern western diseases to overly acidicfying diets. I think it is not a matter of trigger factors individually, but the overall balance in our diets, which is why it has been difficult to pin down universal triggers for all rosaceans, or even consistent triggers within an individual. There have been recent papers describing simple methods to calculate net acid load of our diets, and so there is a single quantifiable variable we can test. I'm sure genetic susceptibility plays some part in the equation, but it cannot be the only part.

Drs Cremers & Sun both mentioned lacking understanding of mechanisms with respect to known triggers. I have just seen that the National Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine (a branch of the NIH) lists as their first research priority 'mechanisms of action'. http://nccam.nih.gov/research/priorities/index.htm#5 If we play our cards right, we could demonstrate a dietary correlation in the MLA study, then use it as leverage to apply for an NCCAM grant to explore the mechanism.

I have drafted a letter to send to Dr Varigos to propose a study, which I've posted in the grant writers' private forum. Comments welcome! I have also been reading up on some of Dr Cordain's work today, and it's great to see that what has been on my mind lately about human evolution and dietary changes has been elegantly written about (and expanded on) in his papers. Good stuff this - we're lucky to have him on board!

Great, this looks really interesting, and right up my alley, so to speak! I am happy to take on this project. First order of business would be to find our principal investigator. I will try first to contact the authors of the two acne studies to see if they are interested (unless the are other suggestions - who is Dr. Cordain?). This could easily be a graduate student project, especially if there is already grant-writing support! Joanne

The brochure text sounds great to me, nice work! For donations, why not set up a paypal account? It's so easy to give money when it's just a couple of clicks of the mouse, and currency exchange will not be an issue. It's a free service for the donor, and almost free for the recipient. Are you still in need of photos? I could try dig up a picture of my asymmetric rosacea - it often affected only one side of my face at a time! Joanne

I agree, I think diet/rosacea could be a very fruitful area of research. I'm also curious to know if there are any ongoing studies or future plans to study the correlation between rosacea and digestive disorders. I read recently that athsma has been found to be a long-term complication of an allergic reaction in the skin - somehow a dermatological immune response progresses to a chronic illness primarily affecting the airways. I wonder if a similar allergic response to something in our food (natural or chemical) could be the initial trigger that eventually progresses to chronic inflammation in the skin.

Just a technical question: Why are individuals considered corporate members? I'm no corporation...