Rosacea - Does is coincide with RA/JRA?

Thank you Kristen Bryant from RA Chicks for asking this!  First, what is Rosacea? Personally, I don't know much about it, so for those like me, let's explain what it is.  Rosacea is a skin disease of adults (more often women) in which blood vessels of the face enlarge resulting in a flushed appearance.  It is a chronic and potentially life-disruptive disorder primarily of the facial skin, often characterized by flare-ups and remissions. There are four types of Rosacea:

• Subtype 1 (erythematotelangiectatic rosacea), characterized by flushing and persistent redness, and may also include visible blood vessels.

• Subtype 2 (papulopustular rosacea), characterized by persistent redness with transient bumps and pimples.

• Subtype 3 (phymatous rosacea), characterized by skin thickening, often resulting in an enlargement of the nose from excess tissue.

• Subtype 4 (ocular rosacea), characterized by ocular manifestations such as dry eye, tearing and burning, swollen eyelids, recurrent styes and potential vision loss from corneal damage.

Experts are not sure what causes rosacea. It tends to affect people who have fair skin or blush easily, and it seems to run in families. Rosacea is not caused by alcohol abuse, as people thought in the past. But in people who have rosacea, drinking alcohol may cause symptoms to get worse (flare).  Rosacea often flares when something causes the blood vessels in the face to expand, which causes redness. Things that cause a flare-up are called triggers. Common triggers are exercise, sun and wind exposure, hot weather, stress, spicy foods, alcohol, and hot baths. Swings in temperature from hot to cold or cold to hot can also cause a flare-up of Rosacea.

The question comes to play... does Rosacea coincide with RA/JRA?  I honestly had a realllly hard time trying to finding any information on this topic. I did find one study that was done on the drug Hydroxychloroquine sulfate (Plaquenil), which is used to treat Rosacea and RA.  The study was done with women aged 40-60+, who had Rosacea and how the drug helped.  The top condition that they also shared was RA.  You can read more about it HERE.  It seems there hasn't been much research done into this topic, but the two are treated with similar drugs and both go through flare-ups.  The one advantage I did find, is that they are treated with the same medications, so it will help eliminate taking a bunch of medications for different illnesses, and eliminating it down to one. 

I did a poll in RA Chicks and asked how many of them who's suffered from RA, also have Rosacea and do they seem to coincide with one another.  Out of the 9 ladies who responded who have Rosacea and RA, they were diagnosed separately and years apart.  Here are some of their claims:
One woman said: "I have Rosacea and RA. My rosacea is controlled..no flares..unlike my RA". 
Another woman said: "I have RA and Rosacea (pretty bad at the mo - more than just red patches). I think medications and some foods do not help the Rosacea but it also gets worse when I am stressed. Nothing seems to have worked for me of a topical nature and some days it looks worse than others". 
One more said: "I have had Rosacea for 15 years. Diagnosed with RA 3 years ago. I keep it under control with RX creams and Anti Biotics. Lots of stress will bring on a break out." 
They don't believe they coincide with one another, they claimed that when stressed they both seem to flare.  However, when the Rosacea flares on it's own the RA doesn't seem to be affected, and vice versa. 

I also looked into to see if Rosacea and Lupus are connected.   The answer to that, is also, NO.  Rosacea is not a symptom of lupus. Rosacea and lupus both can cause a red rash on the face, but the rashes are very different. The rosacea rash can be all over the face, while the lupus rash is normally seen in the butterfly pattern.

I apologize if this article wasn't more helpful, there just doesn't seem to be ANY research out there between Rosacea and Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I researched online for days, and tried asking around.  As of now, it doesn't seem like the two coincide with one another.  On a note, it does seem that once you're diagnosed with one auto-immune disease, it seems somewhere down the line, you will end up being diagnosed with more.  That is just my personally opinion, based on what I have seen in the past.  Hopefully in the future more can be done about this, so those who do suffer from both have some answers.