A few decades after migraines changed the course of my life, I found myself searching for answers once again. This time, it wasn’t migraines. It was rosacea.
The timing couldn’t have been more ironic. I was finishing my functional medicine certification, teaching nutrition, and spending my days helping others understand their health. Yet despite all of that, I suddenly found myself dealing with a condition that seemed completely outside of my control.
It started just before COVID. Almost overnight, the clear, foundation-free skin I had always taken for granted began to change. My face became red, bumpy, and inflamed. No amount of makeup seemed capable of covering it. I remember looking in the mirror and feeling frustrated because I didn’t recognize my own skin anymore.
Like many people, I initially assumed the answer would be found in skincare.
So I did what most of us would do.
I visited dermatologists.
I tried different treatments.
I underwent laser procedures.
I invested in products that promised results.
And yet, despite the time, money, and effort, nothing seemed to create lasting improvement.
Three years passed.
Three years of searching for answers.
Three years of trying to manage what I could see on the surface while feeling increasingly convinced that I was missing something deeper.
Eventually, I made a decision.
I stopped chasing solutions and started asking questions.
The same questions that had changed the direction of my life decades earlier.
Why was this happening?
Why now?
What had changed?
When I stepped back and looked at the bigger picture, the pieces slowly began to come together.
Years of frequent ibuprofen use during my migraine years.
Chronic stress.
A demanding schedule.
Foods that had gradually become daily habits rather than occasional choices.
And a nervous system that had been running at full speed for far too long.
For the first time, I stopped focusing solely on my skin and started looking at the person attached to it.
I worked on calming my nervous system.
Ironically, the slower pace of COVID gave me the space to do exactly that.
I began paying closer attention to food patterns and identifying triggers.
I focused on supporting the foundations of health that I had spent years teaching others about.
And slowly, things began to change.
Rosacea taught me something that migraines had taught me years earlier.
Symptoms are often messengers.
The skin, the gut, the brain, the immune system, and the nervous system are not separate conversations happening inside the body.
They are all part of the same story.
My rosacea journey wasn’t simply about improving my skin.
It was a reminder.
A reminder that health is rarely skin deep.
A reminder that slowing down matters.
A reminder that food matters.
And perhaps most importantly, a reminder that no matter how much we learn, we are all still human.
Even practitioners become patients.
Even experts need to pause and listen.
And sometimes the lessons we teach others are the very lessons we need to hear again ourselves.
— Dr. Lemia Shaban
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