Eating Cinnamon Might Make Rosacea Worse

A recent study published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology showed that rosacea can be exacerbated by cinnamon.

Rosacea is an acne-like condition seen in adults. It can take several forms, but commonly presents as pimples on the nose and cheeks. The study reports on a woman with mild rosacea who started taking oral cinnamon oil pills to treat her diabetes. Two weeks after starting the cinnamon pills, her rosacea became much worse.

When she stopped the cinnamon supplements, her rosacea improved. Interestingly, whenever she ate any type of cinnamon after this, her again rosacea worsened.

Using cinnamon to lower blood sugar and cholesterol levels has been growing in popularity. It’s thought that some properties of cinnamon might act like natural insulin in your body and might decrease your blood sugar levels. Clinical evidence for how effective cinnamon is at lowering blood sugar or cholesterol, however, has been minimal thus far.

Cinnamon certainly does act as a vasodilator, that is, it dilates blood vessels. As one of the main problems in rosacea is dilated blood vessels on the face, it’s likely that cinnamon could worsen these blood vessels and make rosacea worse. Dilated blood vessels can also lead to increased inflammation, which would also worsen rosacea.

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