2 Week, Highly Effective, cheap oral treatment for Rosacea caused by demodex skin Mites.

[ElaineA 15]

2 Week, Highly Effective, cheap oral treatment for Rosacea caused by demodex skin Mites.

There are 2 kinds of human demodex.  The mites eat skin oil.  Demodex Brevis live down in the oil glands.  Demodex Folliculorum live in the follicles.  When the mites die off they make pustules, papules and cysts.  The mites live and die on a 2 to 3 week life cycle which may make the acne appear cyclical.  Because of the cyclical nature, it frequently gets misdiagnosed as hormonal acne.  Demodex can live anywhere on the body that there is an oil gland - everywhere but on the soles of the feet and palms of the hands.

Symptoms include:  large blackeads, pustules, papules, red cysts, red irritated eyes, styes on eye lids, scalp acne, body acne, occular rosacea (blepharitis demodex).  You may have some or all of these symptoms.

There is a 2 week, highly effective, cheap, 2 drug oral, anti-parasitic treatment for demodex.  It was published in the May 2013 International Journal of Infectious Diseases by 5 doctors.  It is a proper medical study on 120 patients.  Treatment consists of taking 2 generic anti-parasitic drugs:  Once weekly dose of Oral Ivermectin (dosage based on body weight at 200 micrograms per kilogram of body weight) and Oral Metronidazole at 250 mg 3 times a day (with food, no alcohol while taking or for 72 hours after last table).  Both drugs have good safety records and are on the WHO's list of 100 essential medications.  

Here's a link to the medical paper entitled "Evaluation of the efficacy of oral ivermectin in comparison with ivermectin–metronidazole combined therapy in the treatment of ocular and skin lesions of Demodex folliculorum"     URL:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197121201315X

If the link is broken, Google the title of the paper to find it.

I was misdiagnosed with bacterial acne for years.  The real problem was caused by microscopic demodex skin mites.  This treatment worked for me.

A knowledgeable dermatologist can test for demodex by collecting a skin sample, placing it on a microscope slide and trying to count the demodex under the microscope.  Demodex mites do not like light so counting them under a microscope can be tricky.  Since Demodex Brevis live in the oil glands, they can be trickier to diagnose.  Some dermatologist will prescribe the treatment without the test to rule out demodex as the source of the problem.

The anti-parasitic treatment will only work if the skin issues are caused by demodex skin mites.  They should also test for a fungal or bacterial infection and possible elevated hormones including thyroid.  Treatment for each of these conditions is completely different.  Identifying the source of the problem is key to curing it with the right treatment.

Accutane can starve the mite population down  by reducing skin oil output.  But the mite population may rebound after you go off the Accutane.  Accutane isn't anti-parasitic so it doesn't directly kill the mites, just reduces their food source.

Its important to use a clean towel for your face daily.  Demodex can live on a wet or damp towel for up to 54 hours.  The mites die at temperatures over 58 degrees C.  So washing and drying in automatic laundry machines should be enough to kill them off.