Hypochlorous Acid as a topical treatment for Rosacea.

 

Rosacea is a long term skin condition often shown in the form of redness of the facial skin mainly over the nose, chin, cheeks and forehead. Rosacea is also more often found in women than men.

The actual cause of Rosacea is unknown but it’s been closely associated with specific triggers, triggers that vary from person to person who suffer from Rosacea.

Common known triggers are such things as alcohol, caffeine and spicy foods. Other triggers can be heavy exercise or other activities that normally cause sweating and a high heart rate can equally trigger outbreaks of Rosacea.

Rosacea is often mistaken for another common skin condition, Acne as both flare up and stay for a while and then often go away.

While there is no cure for Rosacea there are several treatments that can reduce both the visible outbreak and the discomforts.

Dr Sanches Balleza led clinical trials using HOCI (Hypochlorous Acid) as a skin care for reducing Rosacea outbreaks in patients. He has a long history of treating patients with various stages of Rosacea.

Hypochlorous Acid might sound like something you would not want to use on the skin of your face, but it is not like the acid you might be thinking of. Hypochlorous Acid is produced by your body in weak form and forms an important part of your body’s immune system.

Dr Sanches Balleza stated that the very reason that they wanted to test HOCI on patients was the fact that it was part of the body’s own immune system and would therefore only have an impact on the bad bacteria on the skin and not the thousands of good bacteria we all have on our skin and should have on our skin to have a healthy skin.

The trials took place during a 12 week spectrum and included 87 patients who suffered from various stages of Rosacea.

Patients were split into three groups. Group 1 contained 39 patients who were treated with HOCI, Group 2 contained 24 patients who were treated with a common prescription Rosacea treatment called BP and Group 3 containing 24 patients were all treated with a placebo.

The trial was conducted as a double blind random and placebo controlled test during 12 weeks. The treatments including the placebo where applied to the face. The average age of the patients was  33.5 – 35.3 and the trial consisted of 46 women and 41 men.

For those with a result reported as “excellent” 23% used HOCI and 21% used BP. For those with a result reported as “good” 54% used HOCI and 50% BP. Both had a superior effect to the placebo.

This shows that pure HOCI had a better effect than the prescription treatment.

Manufacturers such as UK based Liquid Medical who provide a HOCI based product named Rosacea Clear claim that the fact that the product itself does not contain parabens preservatives, sulphates, alcohol derivatives, phthalates or fragrances, greatly improves the effectiveness of the product and the end skin care result.