Connecting the Dots: Rosacea and Bacterial Overgrowth by Dr. Sharon Orrange/Primary Care Physician: at DailyStrength Doctors and Advisors

Dr. Orrange received her BA in Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters Degree in Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. She received her MD from the USC Keck School of…

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LOCATION: Santa Monica, CA, USA

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Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Geriatric, Hospital and General Internal Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

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Connecting the Dots: Rosacea and Bacterial Overgrowth

Posted in Rosacea by Dr. Sharon Orrange on Dec 06, 2011

Those who suffer from rosacea know that the current treatments don’t work very well. There may be a new intriguing rosacea treatment and it involves treating intestinal bacteria. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth was more common in rosacea patients; and those who were treated with rifaximin (an antibiotic) for bacterial overgrowth had improvement in rosacea, according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology.

A relationship between skin and gut problems has been shown before and now this small series showed that rosacea improved when patients with small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) were treated with rifaximin. Patients with both small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and rosacea were treated with rifaximin; 46% showed clearance of, or marked improvement in, rosacea symptoms while another 25% showed moderate improvement.

Stay tuned as a large trial is underway to further explore the possible benefits of rifaximin in patients with rosacea and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth.

- Dr O.