Recently I was consulted by a 48 year old lady who had been troubled by acne rosacea for 20 years. Acne rosacea is a red pimply rash that affects the cheeks and sometimes the chin and usually first presents in women in their 30s. This lady also experienced repeated tinea (athlete's foot) infections on both feet and she suffered with constant abdominal bloating and fluid retention. I told my patient her problems were largely coming from a super infection of candida in her gut! I asked her why she would have such a bad candida infection and she did not know. Factors that can cause a bad infection with the yeast organism candida are steroids, a compromised immune system, diabetes, food intolerance, alcohol, the oral contraceptive pill, a high sugar diet or antibiotics. Then I elicited a history of antibiotic use and indeed she had been prescribed tetracycline antibiotics for many years to reduce her acne rosacea. I had a look at her years of records of previous liver function tests and noticed that on several occasions her liver function tests had been abnormal with elevated liver enzymes; surprisingly no doctor had ever pointed this out to her! I told my patient that the tetracycline antibiotic was the cause of her intermittently abnormal liver function tests and she should never take it again, especially since it was inappropriate treatment for acne rosacea. Furthermore if she continued to take the antibiotic, her skin conditions and digestive function would likely get worse. The correct treatment for acne rosacea is to improve the digestive health, liver function and the immune system and this would reduce the inflammation in her cheeks. To achieve these goals I prescribed Livatone Plus and supplemental selenium in the form of Selenomune Energy capsules. I also asked her to remove  all gluten from her diet, as acne rosacea is an autoimmune condition. Gluten promotes a leaky gut, which compromises liver health and raises inflammation in the body. Excess inflammation is present in all autoimmune disease. I did not want to use oral drugs to kill the candida, as these could aggravate her liver dysfunction. I decided to treat her intestinal candida infection with the following –
  • Garlic and radish in the diet
  The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not designed to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.