In the past, the disease was generally considered just another form of acne or mistakenly thought to be a reflection of drinking too much alcohol.
While acne is a disease associated with the skin surface, rosacea seems to be related to the vascular system (or the flow of blood in the face). Acne tends to involve the skin pores and tends to be bacterial in nature; rosacea runs deeper and appears to be a more systemic condition.
Though a person may have acne as a teen and rosacea as an adult, no linked has been noted. It’s also possible to experience both acne and rosacea simultaneously; the age segmentation as far as those suffering from the two distinct conditions makes this quite rare in terms of clinical diagnoses.
As far as the association with excessive consumption of alcohol, it is true that drinking alcoholic beverages may trigger a flare for those predisposed or complicate the condition given the role of alcohol in vascular or blood flow. Rosacea is certainly not, however, a simple by-product of consuming a few beers or even drinking heavily and on a daily basis. Many sufferers do not drink at all, and some do so without ill effects in terms of the disease. While patients dealing with rosacea should evaluate consumption of alcoholic beverages (and may opt to avoid alcohol in relation to the condition or for other reasons), the disease is certainly not a drinking induced disease or a reflection of a substance abuse problem.