16 million Americans are affected by rosacea – and most of them don’t even know it. As a chronic inflammatory skin disease, not a lot of people understand these symptoms and may not be able to identify them. With this knowledge gap, this means they might not be able to draw the connection between rosacea and other related conditions.
One of these related conditions is the risk factor for heart disease. In studying 33,553 patients, coronary artery disease and hypertension were significantly associated with heart disease. However, as a professional in dermatology, I can say this is the first time I’m hearing of this, and I’m not entirely confident that this correlation is accurate. Blood pressure was not significantly tied with rosacea with patients I’ve treated before, but nevertheless, I would keep this in mind.
What you can do is ensure you make healthy lifestyle choices to avoid high blood pressure on its own, such as exercising and eating well. In the case that rosacea patients really are at risk for cardiovascular disease, we need to be careful. It’s my hope that in time, we will be able to deduce whether this risk is real, and help stop the onset before it is too late.
Do you have rosacea and high blood pressure? Tweet me your thoughts at @LikewiseDerm!