Coffee a Trigger for Rosacea?
Good News for Coffee Lovers!

First off just remember that whenever you hear about rosacea triggers that usually the list of triggers haven't been substantiated in any clinical studies and most of the triggers are simply anecdotal reports. However, one trigger has been substantiated that should be removed from the list and this trigger is coffee. It is not a rosacea trigger and coffee lovers can rejoice.

The NRS lists coffee as a trigger and as a result many physicians believe this and pepetuate this misconception by telling their patients to avoid coffee. As a result rosaceans believe that coffee is a rosacea trigger when it is not. Actually the NRS says that the trigger is HOT beverages such as coffee. It would be just as valid to add to the NRS list HOT WATER! But thankfully the confusion is cleared up due to the only known rosacea trigger that has ever been actually studied in a clinical report.

According to a 1981 report hot coffee is no more a trigger than hot water so what you need to be careful about is drinking HOT beverages. Simply be careful and cool your coffee. Read below:

Oral thermal-induced flushing in erythematotelangiectatic rosacea.
Wilkin JK; J Invest Dermatol. 1981 Jan;76(1):15-8.

The effects of caffeine and coffee, agents widely alleged to provoke flushing in patients with erythematotelangiectatic rosacea, were investigated. Neither caffeine nor coffee at 22 degrees C led to flushing reactions. Both coffee at 60 degrees C and water at 60 degrees C led to flushing reactions with similar temporal characteristics and of similar intensities. It is concluded that the active agent causing flushing in coffee at 60 degrees C is heat, not caffeine.