Skin Redness (again)

IH,

I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this ongoing bout of skin redness I've been having. It appears my skin is very photosensitive to light. When you look at my face and then go along my hairline on my temples, forehead, near my ears, etc...you can see my facial skin is very red but my hair covered skin is pale white.

My skin isn't sore. It doesn't sting. It doesn't feel dry to me, although it does look dry at times.

I've already been using the Betaine HCL with meals you suggested. Not really sure I've seen much of a difference.

I'm just curious what else I could try or this could be. I'd say the thing I notice the most different in my skin is that the nose and surrounding cheek area has more visible pores than I've ever had. I get a few pimples, especially between
my eyes. That one constantly pops up after going away.

Do remember, the derm I had when I first met you had me on 100mg of Doryx for about a year, plus Retin-A .05%
Could it just be the lasting/lingering after effects of that therapy? I've always had a ruddy complexion, but I feel it's much redder than it was.

Any thoughts? If it is a rosacea type thing, what else besides Betaine could I try? Anything topically to address the redness?

hadrion - There is an unfortunate irony with doxycycline treatment. It is initially very effective for treatment of Rosacea, however, the long term effects of this therapy can result in bacterial overgrowth, antibiotic resistance, gram-negative folliculitis, candida albicans and other sides.

There's a reasonable chance that you have a recapitulation of Small Intestinal Bacterial Growth (SIBO). This has an association with rosacea and at the same time, a consequence of using doxycycline for a long period.

Littlefigher made some posts on SIBO, make be worth a search.

I had trouble finding the posts in the search. Nothing came up under Littlefighter.

If it was this SIBO what would be the appropriate way of dealing with it? Another candida cleanse?

hadrion - Would try burdock root and Dr. Ohhira's Probiotics-12-PLUS and see it that clears it up.

IH -- Great minds think alike. I was just thinking last night I should go back to Dr. ohhirra's probiotic as the Jarrows one we all switched to may not be what's right for me. I also remember my skin looking it's best when I was on Ohhirra's.

I'll also give the burdock root a try.

I'm also going to increase my iodine slightly and try to get some ACV down with meals and see if I see a difference.

I found Little Fighters posts after he posted this morning. The search tool should be more forgiving when searching under author name and not make you have the capitalization be that important.

Just wanted to give an update on this.

I was able to decrease the redness significantly by using Facedoctor RX facial soap.

http://www.iherb.com/Face-Doctor-FaceDoctoRX-Complexion-Soap-3-35-oz-100-g/5662?at=0

No supplements or dietary changes decreased my redness and enlarged pores until I started washing my face with this soap at least 2 times a day. The first week things got worse, but now they have settled down and the redness has decreased and my skin has a much more even tone to it.

The active ingredient in it is Seabuckthorn Oil, but I caution you if you are suffering from what I have not to get the Aubrey Organics bar of Seabuckthron Oil soap on iherb. I used that constantly for months and it did nothing for my facial skin.

It wasn't until I tried this FaceDoctorX soap that I had any results.

Another caution is it is very drying, so make sure you have a good (probably oil free) moisturizer. I use one called Purpose.

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone else is dealing with facial redness that is bordering on rosacea here. This soap has helped a ton.