Med Hypotheses. 2009 Jun 30; Whitehead JRosacea is a common inflammatory condition of the facial skin of unknown etiology, which frequently occurs in combination with gastrointestinal disorders. Many dietary and hormonal factors are known to affect the severity of rosacea symptoms, several of which also modulate the activity of the enzyme intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP). The role of IAP in inhibiting an inflammatory response to intestinal bacteria suggests a mechanism by which intestinal pathologies may be linked to the skin inflammation characteristic of rosacea. Analysis of alkaline phosphatase activity is routinely performed on blood samples, and methods to quantify enzyme activity of the intestinal isoform specifically have been described. Correlations between IAP activity and rosacea symptoms in patients and controls can thus be screened by noninvasive and inexpensive means. If IAP activity is found to be low in rosacea patients, acute symptoms could be treated with oral IAP supplementation, and trials of IAP-activating medications currently used in gastrointestinal disease could be initiated in rosacea patients. More importantly, the safe and long-term control of rosacea could be undertaken by patients themselves through dietary modification to naturally increase IAP activity.
To estimate the prevalence of dry eye and to investigate its relationship with lifestyle and systemic factors in a general adult population in north-western Spain. METHODS: A dry eye questionnaire was administered and objective tests were performed in 654 individuals [mean age (Standard deviation): 63.6 (14.4) years, range: 40-96, 37.2% males]. Subjects were considered symptomatic when one or more of the symptoms of the questionnaire were present often or all the time. Schirmer test or= 3 and fluorescein staining >or= 1 were considered indicative of signs. Dry eye was defined as the simultaneous presence of symptoms and at least one sign. A design based analysis was performed and all calculations were weighted to give unbiased estimates. RESULTS: Dry eye prevalence was 11.0% (95%confidence interval [CI] 8.6-13.3). Dry eye was found to be more frequent in women (11.9%, 95%CI 8.8-15.1) than in men (9.0%, 95%CI 5.3-12.6), and was significantly associated with aging (p autoimmune diseas...