The Age Poll
To All,
Not sure if you have viewed the poll on age on this site recently,
but there are now 53 votes on there, which I think is a very good
response rate.
I encourage anyone who has not participated to do so when you have
time.
I think the results can be read a few different ways and I find them
quite interesting. Here is the summary:
Age–Votes–Percentage of Voters
<14 0 0.00%
15-20 5 9.43%
21-26 15 28.30%
27-32 18 33.96%
33-38 9 16.98%
39-44 4 7.55%
45-50 1 1.89%
51-56 1 1.89%
57-62 0 0.00%
63+ 0 0.00%
As you can see, the age groups between 21 and 37 make up about 80% of
the group. Research I have read suggests that seb derm does appear
less often in people 40+ years and our poll really seesm to back that
up.
I really am intrigued as to why this condition seems to taper off as
we get older. On one hand I think that maybe it is because our
sebaceus glands may produce less oil as we get older, but, why is
that a vast majority of the people that get Rosacea are in their 40s
and 50’s–does’t make sense to me if our oil production is supposed
to be less as we age.
What is happening in our bodies from mid twneties to late thirties
that may be a factor in seb derm?
I am also wondering what other things happen to our bodies as we turn
40 or so that may help alleviate some of the symptoms of seb derm?
Not that I am looking forward to getting older necessarily (37 now),
but would be interested in other thoughts on this.
Please share any thoughts,
RJ
March 7th, 2005 at 11:36 pm
I think it is that we produce less oil as we get older. Seb Derm is
more of an oily skin problem. Rosacea has nothing to do with oil.
It’s a blood vessel disease from all I’ve read on it. I think you see
Rosacea in older people because it is the cumulitive damage of a
variety of things such as use of irritating products, sun damage,
constant flushing because of triggers. As the face constantly flushes
I think the vessels get weaker and leakier. JMO on everything that
I’ve read.
Eric
March 11th, 2005 at 12:55 am
hi RJ,
interesting poll…good idea.
i think all this talk of oil is misleading. its akin to the derms approach
to thinking about it in general. the oil a symptom of the underlying
problem i think. basically, its an immune response problem involving
t-helper cells and such (really complicated).
i think we have to go down to a micro level to really crack the underlying
causes. my view is stress is one factor, immune system responses,
environmental factors and hormones.
i think stress can be roughly placed in two categories, percieved stress and
system stress. percieved stress would be day-to-day life living, the things
you see stressing you out. and system stress would be things like a low
nutritional diet, poor exercise levels (this has been shown to remove
phyisical stress) or anything put into the system in excessive quantities
and the bodies ability to deal with these things, through compensation or in
our cases, not deal with them = imbalances.
its been shown that emotional states and stress levels have a direct
influence on the immune system. and since much of sebderm is linked to the
immune system it makes sense that things are contributing to the overall
problem. apparently its the congregation of excess numbers of t-helper
cells that cause much of the reddening of the face for instance.
the next one i’m sure we’re all familiar with!! the bloody environment!!
heat, humidity, sun, cold (ouch!) rain and everything inbetween. brrrrrrr!
but one that doesn’t seem to come up much is hormones. and i think your
poll might be showing that to be true after all. as far as i know, some
hormone levels in both sexes taper off post 30. maybe this is why the
condition can wane? but that also doesn’t fit with people developing it in
their 50’s and 60’s…
regards,
jammer.
March 11th, 2005 at 11:04 am
Jammer,
The hormone issue is interesting–the one thing that seems agreeable
is that testosterone’s conversion to DHT is responsible for sebaceuos
gland production of oil. When I was on Propecia ( a DHT inhibitor)
a few years ago, my oil production was less and my seb derm flares
did stay at a minimum.
The stuff also totally halted my hair loss (which was not extensive
at all but I did not want it to get worse). I did stop taking
Propecia (actually was taking Proscar, just cut the 5mg pill into
quarters for a daily dosage of 1.5mgs) and within a month or two my
seb derm got really bad again but I decided to not get back on the
Propecia as I felt it was causing my eyebrows to shed more (facial
hair is supposedly dependent on DHT, though it not necessarily
certain).
Anyway, my bald patches in my eyebrows that the seb derm was causing
and then further exacberated by no DHT production did seem to grow
back when stopping the Propecia, but then with all the major seb derm
flares over the last year or so, they have gotten really thin again
and I am now fearing they may never come back (this really sucks).
Anyway, not sure if my story above means anything, because DHT
production I beleive actually increases with age, or at least the DHT
seems to bind more to hair follice receptors more as we age causing
baldness so not sure what conclusions can be drawn from any of this.
On another note, Prednisone is actually a synthetic version of a
natural hormone called cortisol which is produced by our adrenal
glands. Prednisone therapy stops seb derm almost immediatley–I have
taken several courses of Prednisone over the years and it knocks seb
derm out. The problem is you cannot stay on Prednisone for extended
durations and the seb derm always comes back within a week or less of
stopping the therapy.
Again, not sure what this means but I wonder if some of our bodies
are prone for natural cortisol production to taper off for some
reason in our 20’s and 30’s (and then pick back up again in our 40,
50, etc when seb derm seems to be much less common according to
research and to our age poll).
I have not done enough research, but I am curiuos to know if there
are any ways to naturally increase cortisol levels–excersize may be
one way?
Sorry for the ridiculously long post
RJ