There have been a number of observations quoted in the literature of rosacea that is associated with a particular bacteria living in the stomach.
That bacteria is known for being associated with the formation of stomach ulcers, and is named Helicobacter pylori. Its ulcer-causing activity was proven by a bold physician who swallowed a culture of Helicobacter pylori, and got severe stomach upset and developed stomach ulcers.
Some, but by no means all, people with this bacteria living in their stomachs get rosacea, and some people taking the antibiotic triple therapy to get improvement in their rosacea.
So here we have a bug that does not live in the follicles in the face that sets off the reaction in the face that we see as rosacea. The ability of an organism at a distant site to cause a reaction on the face is likely due to the immune reaction it sets off. This could be the start of a natural acne treatment.
More soon on natural acne treatment and holistic skincare.
Another inhabitant of the skin and hair follicles is named Staphylococcus Epidermitis. This form of staph is as common as robins in springtime; that is to say most people have this organism living on their skin.
Nevertheless, there is at least one report on rosacea that seems to be related to it. Whether the individual had some sort of immune defect, or the bacteria had some genetic variation, there is an inflammation caused by it.
There are many other organisms that share the skin, and Staphylococcus epidermitis is valuable because it is a benign bacteria that usually not only does not cause harm: it also occupies the niche so that harmful bacteria cannot find a place to grow. Unfortunately, even this “friend” can sometimes be a bad actor. Here’s a reference to the study.
My seventh grade science teacher used to recite a quote, to give us the essence of the biologic world:
“Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em, and little fleas have smaller fleas, and so on, ad infinitum.”
And so it goes with rosacea. A portion of the people with rosacea have organisms living in the follicles that may be part of the cause of the rash.
One of the organisms that has been found in increased numbers in the hair follicles is a mite (not a flea, but a very distant relative), named Demodex folliculorum. A propos to the quote, Demodex is inhabited by a bacteria called Bacillus Oleronius, which itself has been suspected to be a stimulus of the inflammation seen. Would you believe, this bacteria was first identified in rear gut of a termite? It may be involved in causing the downfall of both your appearance and your house!
More on Acne Rosacea and treating acne naturally, soon.
“You’re giving me gray hair!” a cry that I’m sure I was not the only one who heard this from their mother when their difficult behavior caused her stress. True or not, it all sounded a little like a folk tale, until now. New studies from the laboratory of Dr. Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University show that chronically elevated levels of the stress hormone adrenaline damage the DNA in specific ways that could lead to a spectrum of conditions from gray hair to tumor formation.
The damage was shown to break down p53 protein, the protein that protects the genome against cancer by helping potential cancer cells either repair their cancerous nature, or self-destruct.
In this report in the August 21 issue of the journal Nature, they also showed more detail of the pathway by which adrenaline cause this damage. This included the role of a molecule called beta–arrestin-1 in the process of causing the damage.Two major conferences were held at the New York Academy of Science in the late 1960’s on the effects of psychological factors in causing cancer. An impression of this effect was present for a long time, and supported by numerous studies.
This recent paper by Lefkowitz brings a new level of proof and understanding to the relationship between chronic, excessive stress and the onset of gray hair and cancer. While other factors certainly contribute to onset of these conditions, we can now pinpoint one factor over which we may have some control.
Exercise, meditation, breathing exercises and other stress-management techniques may contribute to longer, healthier, and less gray lives.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
This winter, be sure to protect your skin from the sun, snow, and wind. Here are five tips for your best dry skin protection.
To your health,
Alan M Dattner, MD
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Treating your acne rosacea naturally can bring up a bit of shock. People are often horrified to find out that there are tiny organisms living in the follicles on their nose and the center of their face. Some of those organisms include tiny mites that burrow into the hair follicles with their tail sticking out.
These mites, known as Demodex, are shaped like tiny cigars, with legs at one end. Identifying an abundance of them under the microscope after scraping the skin can be very helpful for the treating dermatologist, and for the patient as well.
Nevertheless, they can bring up great disgust when the patient sees them, wiggling under the microscope after being scraped off their skin. There is an old morbid old children’s rhyme: “the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play pinochle on your snout.” Sounds like rosacea to me.
What’s more, these mites have bacteria living inside of them, which may be a stimulation for the inflammation seen in rosacea. To top that off, this is only the beginning of the list of organisms living in the hair follicles that are suspected to play a role in causing rosacea. Treating rosacea naturally can be the safest, longest-lasting way to clear it. More on treatment methods in the next blog.
Pomegranates are back on the shelves, and hopefully, back in our hearts! I have just spotted Pomegranates on the shelves of my local produce stores at rock bottom prices, meaning they are in season nearby. They contain valuable anti-oxidants that are well known to protect the heart.
What’s news is that they also have been shown to have protective effects on the skin. Dr. Hassan Mukhtar, who I met over 10 years ago when he presented his findings on the anti-oxidant protective effects of green tea extract, EGCG,recently published studies on the protective effects of pomegranate extract against Ultraviolet (UV) radiation damage. His group’s studies, published in 2005 showed that pomegranate extract inhibited UV damage in cultured human skin cells by inhibiting the changes in two molecular pathways associated with cancer (known as NF-kappaB and MAPK).
More recent studies showed that feeding Pomegranate extract to mice protected against a wide variety of biological markers related to UV light induced development of cancer. This information is important because it substantiates the mechanism by which pomegranate protects against skin cancer induced by UV light. Some of those mechanisms of UV damage also contribute to aging of the skin. So data is emerging suggesting that food derived anti-oxidants such as pomegranate may protect against both skin aging and cancer.
You can pick up pomegranates at your local produce store and enjoy them as a snack or desert. I eat them with an old dark sweat shirt or apron on, and not my favorite light colored clothing, as the red juice from the seeds has a tendency to squirt and stain when you cut them open. It may take you a few tries to get used to the slightly tart taste.
The seeds are the size of corn kernels, and have hard seeds inside. The white pulp around them is slightly bitter, but is also loaded with anti-oxidants, so I eat some of that along with the delicious red juice in the seeds. I make sure that the seeds have the rich purple color, and toss away those that have turned brown, in some sections of the fruit.
Pomegranates have been revered for thousands of years in the Middle East. If you travel to those lands, you will notice the familiar round shape with a wide, protruding stem in paintings and jewelry. Perhaps they were revered because of benefits seen in those who ate them over generations. It’s exciting to know studies simply confirm that you now can protect both your skin and your heart by enjoying this tasty fruit.
The Holidays are a time for parties, celebrations, and special treats. Candies, cookies and cakes appear as gifts and thank you’s at all sorts of homes and businesses at this time of year. It is not uncommon to hear a nudge to eat that “forbidden treat”- “Go ahead, it’s the holidays.” In the process, a lot more sugar gets eaten at this time of year. Other rich foods, like egg nog, and alcoholic drinks, and even foods suspected of being allergic, get consumed as well.
Some people date the onset or aggravation of their skin problems to this time of year. Sugar aggravates acne and other conditions by a variety of different pathways. It
favors overgrowth of yeast in the digestive tract, which leads to leaky gut, absorption of allergens from food, and inflammation of oil glands.
A spike in blood sugar is answered by a spike in insulin levels, and then a rise in Insulin-like growth factor (IGF). This IGF has been shown to affect the follicular area in more than one way that leads to acne formation. This is just one way in which too much sugar can lead to a skin problem.
Other rich foods, alcohol, and allergy producing foods all have ways in which they can aggravate not only acne, but other skin problems.
So I wish you a sweet New Year and Holiday season, filled with love and deeper joy, but light on the sugar in its many forms. This is the one of best possible natural acne treatments.
To your health,
Alan M Dattner, MD
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As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
Treating food allergy, Candida overgrowth and sensitivity, and leaky gut, has been a cornerstone of my holistic dermatology practice. I’m sure that there are a lot of my patients out there who struggled with those diets, who will chuckle to hear that I recently got a “dose of my own medicine”. I want to share my experience in a short series of ongoing emails and blogs, in hope of inspiring others to make progress, and tell their own stories of success.
A few years ago, my own doctor heard about my own digestive issues, ordered some tests, and found our that I had antibodies in my blood diagnostic of a gluten sensitivity. Since that time, I have been on a fairly strict gluten-free diet, never eating wheat, barley oats or rye, but perhaps getting small amounts of gluten from Chinese restaurant soy sauce, hidden flour, or a crumb here or there that sticks to the bottom of an occasional desert. I have been well, except for a slightly active digestive system at times, and a little arthritis in two finger joints.
Recently, a repeat food test for allergy was done in thanks for giving blood to use to evaluate new testing methods for wheat sensitivity, by a lab that tested me before. The list had enlarged considerably from the first test, taking away some 50 of my favorite foods. Still reasonably cheerful, I went to the produce store in New Rochelle and bought the vegetables and foods which were still permitted on my list, and found out that I could put together some delicious but simple meals.
I also found out that I could use what was allowed to make some really tasty snacks with allowed ingredients I had never put together in those ways before. I used orange juice instead of lemon, ginger where I would have used garlic, and sesame paste to make my salad dressing.
The problem came with going to a big celebration, and then ordering food the next day. I did not notice any immediate change from all of the foods I ate out, but did get very tired after eating food with my problem soy sauce. The day after, I ate one piece of the dish, permitted by my food test (but interestingly, not by my tribe), and immediately felt a kind of heaviness and faint fogginess overtake my head.
When I bothered to check my chart, two out of three of the vegetables were not permitted, along with the soy sauce (which has traces of wheat and possibly corn starch to thicken it). So much for easy ordering and eating. I will have to prepare food from scratch.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
While sharing about natural skin care is my passion, but at this time of the year, the Holiday season, with all of its joys and stresses of family and friends, I think it is appropriate to talk heart to heart. It is certainly a time that I have been reflecting on all that I have to be grateful for, even while floating in the national and global crises and the storms of the holiday season.
So I want to offer thanks to all of those of you who have touched my life in any way, and for all of those of you whom I have had the joy of being able to help in some way or another, for that brings true joy to my life as well.
Right now, pomegranates are in season. They are big, ripe, juicy, and on sale at your local fruit and vegetable market. They have juicy purple seeds now which contain juice that has bioflavonoids which are very beneficial for your heart. The hard seeds inside, and white inner pulp, although not as tasty to eat, also contain bioflavinoids which benefit the heart and the skin by taming free-radicals. They also smooth and firm the skin by promoting collagen and elastin production.
Eating some of that white pulp inside the skin and chewing the seeds of the fresh fruit is even better for you than drinking the juice (the white pulp is where the bioflavinoids are). Now, that’s natural skincare. So pick up a few pomegranates at the market now if you are so inclined, and enjoy not only the taste, but the benefit they will bring to those very important blood vessels in your skin and your heart. Feel the joy in your heart that they are here for you in this Season.
As always, the content of this blog is for information and education purposes only, and should not be used to prevent, diagnose or treat illness; please see your physician for care.
There have been a number of observations quoted in the literature of rosacea that is associated with a particular bacteria living in the stomach.
