Hi All,

I am hesitant to post anything to the group on this as I really wanted
to get Dr Nase's comments before anyone else tries this. I'm hoping
he will review this and add comments for the group. My questions for
him are at the bottom of the post. Any additional details he might
add would be appreciated as always too.

Also, I'm sorry about the long post, but there is a lot of info to
cover here...

I don't have a science background, but after reading Dr Nase's post on
Zileuton, I was interested in learning more about 5-lipo-oxygenase,
what it does, what might block its effects, etc and I came across this
article, along with many others on the subject. This article includes
links to several PubMed articles and they are very interesting as well:

http://www.usenet.com/newsgroups/sci.cryonics/msg00081.html

All of the research on Boswellia (Boswellic Acids) as a natural
inhibitor of 5-lipoxygenase peaked my interest so I did some further
Google'ing. There seems to be plenty of other research on Boswellia,
but not being a scientist, I'm not sure of its basis. Most of the
research seems to be in the area of inhibiting 5-lipo-oxygenase for
asthma or arthritis, but it appears that Boswellia helps with these
two disorders and might be potentially useful for 5-lipo-oxygenase
inhibition for Acne and - it appears to me - Rosacea too. Thus the
Zileuton trials for Acne and Dr Nase's interest in it for Rosacea.

Always willing to experiment, I ran down to the local healthfood
store a week ago and purchased some Boswellia Serrata Gum Extract.
According to a couple of the articles I read on Asthma, you should
take at a minimum 150mg of Boswellic Acids 3 times per day to see
results. The Gum Extract I purchased was 250mg standardized at 60%
boswellic acids or 150mg of Boswellic Acids.

I am having remarkable results with the Boswellia, with none of the
harsh side effects of the Ivermectin I took (see my Ivermectin post on
12/10/04 for more info). The first day I took Boswellia, I noticed
an almost immediate - within 2 to 3 hours - reduction of sebum
production. Since then, I've seen a further decrease in sebum
production, burning sensations, P&Ps, the odd KP like rash I get on my
arms, legs and stomach and the seb derm in my scalp. Each day, my
skin seems to get better, and at this point, my skin is in AMAZING
condition - the seb derm on my scalp is gone, my skin is pale (yes,
this is a good thing), I've only had a couple of very short lived
instances of burning sensations in the last week - one after way too
much wine, and my skin looks clearer than it has in 30 years. My
skin was in fairly good condition after the Ivermectin I took, but I
was seeing a trailing off of the results, and I had a huge flare just
before starting to take the Boswellia, with an increase in all
symptoms listed above. It appears that much - although not all - of
the benefit I personally saw from the Ivermectin (Stromectol) was due
to the side effect of sebum reduction or something else that was
fairly short lived.

One odd thing I noticed in the article above is about Asprin and its
affect on 5-LOX:

" ...Aspirin inhibits COX-2, but also COX-1 even to greater extent.
Inhibiting only COX-2 leads to increased production of substances
produced with the help of 5-LOX. For example aspirin can trigger
asthma attack, because it inhibits COX-2, which leads to increased
production 5-LOX products leukotrienes, which are involved in
initiating asthma attack...."

Since my last HUGE rosacea flare was after taking aspirin for several
days for headaches, I did a little more research on it too. Again
there seems to be much more research about this in the Asthma arena.
It appears that large numbers of Asthmatics have problems with
Aspirin and other NSAIDS due to the affects on 5-LOX products, and one
of their symptoms is FLUSHING:

http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/full/118/5/1470

Interesting since I've seen so much about Aspirin and its potential to
help with the inflamation we experience. Potentially Aspirin and
other NSAIDS might cause additional problems for SOME of us. I'm
thinking they might for me.

For the last several years, I have usually taken Tylenol instead of
Aspirin for headaches that on average I have had 4-5 times a week
since I was 13 (I'm now 42). Every now and then I get worried about
the effects on my liver so I switch back to Aspirin. Recently I had
two episodes where after drinking 3-4 glasses of wine - wines I have
consumed in the past - I took aspirin before going to bed. Within 2
hours, I woke up flushing like crazy (ears, face, neck, hands and
feet), and itched so bad from head to toe that I had to take Benadryl
to get the itching to stop. For several days following the episode,
my Rosacea symptoms were at their worst. I assumed I was having an
allergic reaction to the wine, but couldn't understand why I would be
allergic to wine that I had consumed before, and without incident
since. Now I'm really wondering if the aspirin might have been the
culprit.

My headaches have been diagnosed as cluster headaches, and mine seem
to be more chronic than most meaning that it I rarely experience a
period where they go away. Although this does occasionally occur
unexpectedly, I have noticed that I haven't had a headache since
taking the Boswellia. I even failed to have a headache when
celebrating my birthday the other night with WAY too much to drink -
an episode which should really have caused a massive headache and a
horrible rosacea flare. Instead I had neither a headache nor the a
big rosacea flare - just a little burning the next day with no
flushing or other symptoms. While it will take weeks or months before
I would be able to link Boswellia to headache reduction due to the
nature of my headaches, the research I have read on histamines and
headaches makes me hopeful. Also, my sinuses have cleared so much
while taking the Boswellia that this may be the reason for lack of
headaches.

As a warning, I found this PubMed study which indicates Boswellia may
be hepatoxic in higher doses. This is the only study I could find like
this and there are others in PubMed which seem to indicate it is quite
well tolerated - one even indicates it could be useful in preventing
liver cancer. This is what I'd really like to get Dr Nase's opinion
about. Anyway here's the PubMed study:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstra\
ct&list_uids=15539433

Finally, I'm concerned about a couple of other things. One is that
since Boswellia is considered an herbal medicine, it is not regulated
for purity - at least not here in the US. In my mind, it would be
very important to find a source that we could trust for purity.
Also, with the recent news about COX-2 inhibitors, I'm concerned about
the effects of inhibiting 5-lipoxygenase without the simultaneous
inhibiting of cyclooxygenase since the latest research appears to show
that inhibiting one MAY cause overproduction of the other.

So here are my questions for Dr Nase - or anyone else who has a
scientific background for that matter:

1. Given the research on Boswellia (Boswellic Acids), does its safety
concern you? Is the one PubMed study warning about hepatoxicity in
large doses fairly typical?
2. What are your thoughts on the possibility that Aspirin might cause
an increase of 5-LOX products in some of us?
3. What are your thoughts on taking a 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor
without a corresponding cycloxygenase inhibitor? I've been afraid to
take even a baby aspirin a day since my last flare, but I'm concerned
about inhibiting one pathway without the other after reading some of
the research. I read that Ginger seems to inhibit both, but I
couldn't find much in the way of scientific research on it.
4. Would you expect that taking a 5-LOX inhibitor like Boswellia
would be as beneficial like it appears it is for me for ALL rosacea
sufferers or just a smaller percentage of the rosacea population?
5. Any thoughts on how best to assure purity when purchasing an
herbal supplement like Boswellia. I purchased a product by a
division of TwinLabs, hoping that this well known brand might afford
me some level of security, but I'm still concerned.

I'm looking forward to your comments. Again the results I have seen
are amazing, but I'd really like to see Dr Nase's comments before
anyone else tries this.

Dr Nase, thanks again as always for all your efforts...

Dan