Rosacea, laser and ZZ cream

[ed123]

Today is my sixth days using ZZ cream....(twice a day morning and night)

And it was terrible, all the old pimples were all brought out to surface, similar to monster right now...

On cheek, chin, and some on forehead, they all are red and bumpy acnes & pimples...

Even worst when I was sweating during work hours, the itch and hurt, terrible feelings....

my colleague said my face pretty much resemble 89% cooked, terribly red......

don't know if this is correct medication for my skin...

Has anyone been through this stage before? Kindly advise...

I am stressed out right now...

[Dr.VladimirKryptoïd]

Ouch..it sucks...but yeah, lots of people on this board have been through this kind of reaction. It's an initial breakout because of the mites dying. They decompose on your skin and present you with all of their nice bacteries...Even I went through this kind of reaction but probably not as bad since the acne that goes with my rosacea is rather mild. Pimples on both cheeks, my chin, and my forehead. Itching like crazy...Don't worry, it will go away...and probably come back a week later. Go away again...and come back but not as intense. I'd say that my second breakout was half as bad as the first one and now that it's gone, my face looks better than when I used Metrogel. I have like, what, three spots ? I'd say that my main concern now is the redness and even it looks a bit reduced.

The main thing is to keep faith in the product, especially since this initial breakout is the sign that it's working ( just like people breaking out at first on Accutane ).

Just do a few searches on the forum and you'll see that lots of people had to go through this, some of them during even more than three months but in the end, their face got better and even healed.

Take Care

[ed123]

Thanks Dr. Vladimir,

It has been an encouraging reply from you...

I have had this terrible pimples & acnes since I start working around 8 years ago...

None of the medicine, treatment works well with my skin condition, so, I was rather give up on my skin problem, and today is the worst and darkest day I had came across in my entire life... terrible... I wonder if I could bear the second massive break out the next few days....

It seems that life is so unfair to people with such a poor skin condition like us...

[kibong]

lol you are not alone ed
me too, have had a really bad acne problem since around 7 years ago, during my junior highschool day
even my teacher said that my face is "full" of acne, everywhere, forehead, nose cheek, and chin, basically it's a monster face =x
but i didnt really bother bout that, not until when i became very self conscious 2 years ago
by that time my face is better, at least no more acne in nose, forehead and chin, but i did something stupid which aggravates 'em again, bad lifestyle, online gaming almost 24/7 , bad diet etc, which greatly deteriorate my skin condition.. many cystic acne surfaced , even my cheek looks extremely horrible
that was my darkest period, until the 3.5 months of summer holiday when i treat myself w/ topical clindamycin + oral doxycycline
they do eliminate 70-80% of my acne and now i've only got a flushing face and very mild acne (almost never got any cystic acne anymore, mostly small pimple)
that's why im trying this zz cream+fumanling, hoping to get a 100% cure
during the 1st and 2nd week of using the cream my face also worsen, been getting many 'eczema like condition', no pimple, but only in the cheek+temple area, nose, forehead and chin were almost unaffected, which greatly discouraged me
but now after 3 weeks, im only dealing with the redness + few spots
my face still feel itchy, but no more alergy-like patch of skin, even the redness in my temple area has disappear 70%
so just put a faith in the cream and dont be discouraged
remember that there's a lot of people w/ even worse skin condition that dont have the luck to get the cure
(try googling "cystic acne" and see the resulting image)

[ed123]

Thanks for all your advise Kibong!

Yeah, perhaps you're right, we have to see the bright side, since we have found the right cure...

I think I will continue with the cream for few more weeks and see how it works out...

[crazybas]

Hey Ed,
I know the battle against acne is really tough, I've got deep acne scars to prove it. Whenever I think I look like shit on a particular day(s), I realize that if I don't have the looks, I might as well make sure that I've got a confident, positive attitude and personality working for me (as hard as it may be). Can't let acne or my appearance take that away from me too.

But as far as the ZZ goes...
Just like any other harsh topical treatment, your skin needs time to adjust. Right now I'm on day 12 of using the ZZ once a day, and my skin is fine with it- but only because I've been using Benzoyl Peroxide (another harsh treatment) for the last two months for my acne. So my skin has built up a tolerance.

If your skin is really irritated, you might wanna try just using the ZZ once a day. I would ask Walter if he thinks it's OK for you to do so even though you initially started out using the ZZ twice a day. I know of several members like myself that only use the ZZ once a day.

Also, when you apply the ZZ, make sure that your face and fingertips are damp (even slightly wet) so you can use a really small amount to spread around.

[ed123]

Hi Crazybas and all other fellow board members.

Thanks for your reply which I found put a solid emotional foundation for the newbie...

With all your keen advise and suggestion, I could see that, the world is not so dark anyway...

Though our daily social interaction might not be as pleasant as we ideally think of , but glad to have all of your encouraging replies.

Today is my seventh days using the zz cream (twice a day), and I try to use some clean water on my fingers before start applying the zz cream in order to do the spread even wider and thinner.

and guest what, the breakout is not so bad as yesterday... so red bumps for two hours and diminished soon after.

Hopefully this would really work through the whole healing process, as I am terribly disencouraged by the massive breakout.

I think have to keep faith on the zz cream for 4 months at least.

Will update you guys again once I have any improvement. Thanks alot!

[Dr.VladimirKryptoïd]

I hope that what follows will help you a bit keeping strong with the ZZ treatment :

I think I'm finally seeing the first real results of the treatment. My face has been almost clear ( almost becaue there is still one on my cheek that has been dried out and is very sloooooowly fading away because it was originally very red ) of any p&ps for two days, almost not itchy at all. The best thing is, however, that my face is clearer now ( I mean as regards redness ) that it has been in at least two years. As regards my cheeks, half of the surface that was pink-red only a month ago is now white/normal. The only redness left is more pink than really red. Also, I haven't flushed today after my meals, something that has not happenned in...well, years. It's been three days now that my base color is getting clearer every morning when I look in the mirror. I'm really keeping my fingers crossed !

I'll keep you updated.

[ed123]

Hi Dr. Vladimir,

Could you tell us how did you apply the ZZ cream ? Once a day? damp your hand with the cream and spread it wide side?

As I read from the old forum Walter teach the newbie to do so.

Did you develop the eczema like or skin peeling / drying process using the zz cream? Did you use moisturiser to clean the dried skin problem?

Thanks for your advise!

[Dr.VladimirKryptoïd]

Ok so during first week I tried to apply it twice a day, like it says on the ointment, after moisterizing my skin. It was too much for my skin to handle. Within two days, my skin began to litteraly crack open because of the dryness , to peel like crazy. I also had this eczema like appearance : intense redness, skin a bit swollen and looking like it were burnt. Switched to once a day ( evening ) without moisterizing it. The intense redness went away after two or three days but then I had my first outbreak. It looked like a ( small ) rash, especially on my chins and forehead. SUPER ITCHY ! Then I started to also moisterize it in the morning after I shower. And things slowly started to get better. One week ago I had this second outbreak but it was nowhere near my first one. Didn't look like a rash, nowhere near as itchy. And now things are going really better.

I had two more spots this night but they are rather small. A bit itchy. BUT my skin seems even clearer as far as the color is concerned and I'm really happy about that ! I'm looking almost normal besides the few spots !

So to sum it up, here is what I'm doing : moisterize in the morning after I took my shower with a very mild soap. Don't apply anything until evening. Wash my face and apply ZZ.

I usually apply ZZ after I wash my face. Wipe it gently and once it's ALMOST dry apply ZZ. Not too much but enough. Usually take a little bit of cream on the tip of my fingers and apply it in small spots all over one cheek. Then I spread these points with my hand, very gently and slowly to make sure it's all over the cheek. Do the same for the other cheek, for my chin, nose, forehead. Done.

And yeah I'm still rather flaky in the morning but a shower + moisterizer take care of most of these ( I don't look flaky during the day then ).

[ed123]

Dear Dr. Vladimir,

I have also started to use zz cream on every evening only for the last two days, and yes, my dried skin has reduced a bit... during day time I tried to wash my face gently using mineral water two times six hourly...., that surely help to reduce the flakiness of the dried skins on both cheek and chin ... I have not tried any branded moisturizer yet, as being afraid will caused more redness on the spots.

I think small quantity of zz cream will surely improve our skins, as I could feel my outer skin layer is smoother than before, and the great thing is, today, on day 8th, when I was sweating, no more terrible itchiness or hurts symptoms, just a bit of tiny itchiness on my forehead come out and disappear within couple of hours.

I think time will give the concrete answer whether zz cream is our skin's saviour or not !

[Dr.VladimirKryptoïd]

lol well. When I started to look really better : NEW OUTBREAK

But I don't care much though because it is half as bad as the previous one which was nowhere near the first one. Time indeed !

[ed123]

I read some books regarding what kind of diets if we have acnes or pimples, they said three main ingredients we suppose to avoid:

1). Vegetable oils (except Virgin Coconut Oil) --> first rank!!!
2). Sugar (any kind of sugar and its generated products)
3). Eggs (any kind of eggs and its generated products)

So, I have started to avoid these things for two days, see if there's more break out or not!

Anyone want to try ?

[crazybas]

Hey Ed,
I think that evaluating your diet is a real good thing to do. Over the summer I became a gluten-free vegan in a quest to end my acne. For about 9 years I have suffered from moderate to severe cystic acne and have been on Accutane twice. I had never attempted a diet change though. So over the summer, I tried to strip my diet down to raw and anti-inflammatory foods, and then introduce certain foods back to my system, to see what influenced my ance. I definitely think that food does have an impact on acne, but everyone is different. With my diet, I was able to control my acne but I lost a lot of weight (which I didn't want) and wasn't eating basic things that I'd enjoyed so much in the past (simple foods like bagels, cereal, etc..). So, because I had to strip down my diet so much, my quality of life did not get better. Plus while I could control my acne, I could not maintain 100% clear skin (during this time I was not using any topical cream at all either so I was completely relying on my diet).

The diet that you found of cutting out vegetable oils, sugars, and eggs may work for you and it may not. If you do a search of home acne remedies you will find hundreds of solutions, which means that different things work for different people.

Right now I am a dairy free vegetarian, except I do eat fish and eggs (the only meat I eat). I use a lot of Extra Virgin Olive Oil everyday (not canola or processed vegetable oil) for the fatty acids and eat a lot of beans (protein, carbs, and fiber) and fruits and vegetables. I also have a serving of pasta a day, for a healthy source of calories.

Whatever you try, one thing I would keep in mind is that you should avoid binge eating (eating a large meal in one sitting). Eat slowly, and try to spread your meals out throughout the day. The reason for this is that when you eat a lot (of anything really), your body releases the hormone Insulin to regulate your blood sugar level. Insulin and its effects on other bodily hormones has had links to acne and inflammation. You don't wanna stun your body with a big meal and have a series of possible acne producing hormones activated.



Hope the ZZ is beating up that acne for you!
-Bas

[kibong]

today it's been 1 month using the zz for me, havent really seen any notable improvement during the 1 month, today my face seems to be burnt, getting quite a number of acne, mostly in temple area and few in cheek.
going update next month