Johnson Medical Center. “Typically, you’ll use a combination
of at least two drugs, oral or topical, and modalities such as
light therapy or lasers for visible capillaries,” she says. And
as rosacea is progressive, she notes, “the earlier you can get
treatment, the better.”
Baldwin is “pretty darn happy” with ivermectin, the
Demodex mite-killing drug once available only in oral form
and now recently approved as a topical gel. She has also had
good results with Oracea, she tells me—a low-dose antibiotic
that doesn’t kill bacteria but reduces inflammation from the
inside out. Zeichner prefers Rhofade, an FDA-approved
cream with the same active ingredient as Visine that
dramatically reduces redness by constricting blood vessels,
while doctors such as Ellen Marmur, M.D., a leading New
York City dermatologist, are increasingly prescribing
beta-blockers—those epinephrine- and adrenaline- controlling
friends to anxious public speakers. “A low dose prevents
flushing,” she reveals of the effective way to subdue rosacea’s
redness by lowering blood pressure. “And it’s great for brides
before their walk down the aisle!”“What you eat can also play a big role in managing your
symptoms,” adds Rajani Katta, M.D., a Houston-based
dermatologist who has studied the effects of diet on rosacea
and suggests I try an eight-week elimination diet to home in
on ingredients with capsaicin, a chemical that affects the
receptors in skin that feel warmth (goodbye, peppers), and
those containing cinnamaldehyde, a vasodilator (farewell,
chocolate, citrus, cinnamon, and tomatoes).
A month into my own Rhofade prescription—and with a
few zaps of Zeichner’s Vbeam Perfecta laser—my visible
blood vessels have vanished, and while my skin is still slightly
rosy, it’s notably not ruddy. I’m also becoming aware of my
triggers (peppers are now verboten in my kitchen). If I do have
a flare-up, I reach for La Roche-Posay’s Rosaliac CC Cream
with ambophenol, a calming African plant extract, and try to
embrace the fact that my flush can be mistaken for a recent
workout—not necessarily a bad development. “I see we both
went for a run this morning,” a friend tells me when I join
her for brunch. I have done no such thing. But I pick up themenu and announce that I’ll be having the crepes anyway. (^) @
Small Wonder
Stylist Stella Greenspan is a magpie for
vintage fashion—though her string-
bean proportions (she stands six-foot-one) make fitting
anything that’s more than a decade old virtually
impossible. What she lacks in Edwardian tea dresses,
however, she makes up for in vintage handbags. Sourced
in thrift stores from Paris and Los Angeles to Zurich,
where she grew up, Greenspan’s impressive trove of
one-of-kind purses inspired her to design her own. “I love
a little bag with a big personality,” she says, “though
often my best vintage pieces either proved to be too tiny
or started falling apart.”