Why do lips dry

Dry lips common problem among many women. Moreover, dry lip skin can become not only in the cool months of the year. This article will help you understand what are the causes of dry lips and how to deal with this trouble.

Why do women dry and crack lips: reasons

Doctors and dermatologists indicate several common causes of dry lips:

• temperature differences;
• lack of vitamins;
• certain diseases;
• Unhealthy Lifestyle;
• professional problems;
• reaction to drugs;
• bad habits.

Sometimes the drying of the lips is caused by two or even three reasons at once, which are not so easy to deal with. It is worth talking about each cause of this trouble separately.

Temperature differences

For many, discomfort on the lips appears precisely during a temperature difference, when delicate skin is exposed to polar temperatures. Especially often this happens in winter and autumn, when you need to go out of the house to the street, where there are minus temperatures and strong winds that dry your lips.

In the summer, too, you should be on the lookout - many already know about how the treacherous sun negatively affects hair: it dries it, makes it more brittle and dull. Ultraviolet rays do not in the best way affect the skin. But, if the long-term effect of prolonged exposure to the sun manifests itself only years later (wrinkles, age spots), then the lips can dry out immediately.

Hypersensitivity to cold or solar radiation is often diagnosed not in women, but in men aged 20-60.

Lack of vitamins

This is a big problem in the winter-spring period, when many people eat less varied than in summer. The main fighters for the beauty and smoothness of the skin of the lips are vitamins A, E, D and B (especially B2). Often, in addition to dry lips, burning of the mucous membrane of the mouth and tongue is manifested, and on the reddish rim of the lips there are visible signs of finely scaly peeling and thin vertical cracks. Lack of vitamins is often painful - cracks that tend to bleed, and an enlarged tongue are troubling.

Diseases

A cause of dry and cracked lips may be some kind of disease. One of the most common manifestations of serious health problems is cheilitis, an inflammatory process that affects the mucous membrane and skin of the lips.

Cheilitis can occur in the form of edema, redness, dryness and peeling of the lips, and sometimes bleeding sores, purulent crusts, burning and painful sensations when opening the mouth and eating. Often the problem is recurrent in nature.

Cheilitis can be associated or caused by the following reasons:

• Fungal infections, erythematosis, psoriasis, lichen planus, syphilis, tuberculosis and other skin diseases;
• Allergic reactions. Often appear during contact with the components that make up lipsticks and some products. Those suffering from such troubles have clinical manifestations of dryness and peeling of the skin of the face;
• Neurological disorders. The so-called exfoliative cheilitis occurs from severe excitement, depression, and anxious feelings of a person. This type of cheilitis most often has a continuous sluggish course, with moments of remissions and exacerbations, and almost does not lend itself to self-healing;
• Hyperthyroidism.Researchers have reason to believe that this problem also causes the lips to dry out;
• Chronic gastritis and gastroduodenitis. Up to a third of people with these diseases constantly experience bad breath, rashes on the lips and mouth: dryness and peeling of the lips are noted in most patients;
• Anomalies of the small salivary glands (congenital or acquired). At risk of getting glandular cheilitis are women with chronic periodontal disease, tartar and caries: these problems push the salivary gland ducts to be infected;
• Neuritis of the facial nerve. The basis may be a hereditary predisposition. A sign of these diseases can be dry lips, itching, sometimes swelling, flowing to other parts of the face. The color of the lips and skin does not change, although in edematous places the skin becomes bluish-pink. Neuritis can manifest itself in the form of a warp of the face to the healthy side, and the nasolabial fold is smoothed.

Professional issues

We are talking primarily about musicians who play wind instruments. In response to the prolonged presence of mouthpieces in the mouth, severe itching, dryness, pain, burning, swelling and redness of the lips occur. In some cases, bubbles appear on the lips, after opening which cracks are exposed. This is another clinical manifestation of cheilitis - allergic contact. Most often in musicians, such cheilitis go into the chronic stage and appear in the form of dryness, peeling and slight itching without a strong inflammatory reaction.

Bad habits

Bad habits that can cause peeling and dry lips include:

• constant biting of the lips;
• the habit of holding foreign objects in the mouth: pencils, pens, etc.

Unhealthy Lifestyle

Unhealthy lifestyles can be understood, first of all, improper diet (the use of a large number of salty foods, coffee), drug addiction and alcohol consumption.

Medications

Some drugs can cause a number of side effects, which are described in the instructions for use. These drugs include a powerful tool for the treatment of skin diseases "Roaccutane": this drug makes the skin soft and hypersensitive - lips crack and dry during the entire treatment period. Some other drugs for the treatment of acne have the same effect - Aknekutan, Sotret, etc.

Dry lip treatment

Dry lips occur for certain reasons, the clarification and treatment of which is the main task of every beautiful lady or man. At the same time, it is necessary to cure and eliminate external defects at home.

1. Deep health problems that cause lips to dry are treated with the appropriate medications prescribed by your doctor. In some cases, autohemotransfusion (transfusion of a patient’s own blood), UFOK (ultraviolet irradiation of blood), and other ways to increase the reactivity of the body are effective.
2. If signs of an allergy are found on any cosmetic product or product, then you should not experiment - forget about it forever, no matter how tasty or expensive it is. If the lips are very sore, antihistamines are taken inside.
3. In order to prevent lips from drying out, peeling and sore, you need to constantly protect them from the cold or insolation, using hygienic lipstick before going out onto the street - and better with SPF protection, which will be useful in the winter.

   It is also beneficial to use moisturizing lipsticks after meals and throughout the day.

   
4. Vitaminosis will have to be treated not one, and not two days - by adding to the diet products containing trace minerals useful for the skin: nuts, herbs, vegetables, fish, etc. In order to speed up the process of restoring balance, it is necessary to take pharmacy vitamins in addition.

   During the treatment of complex forms of dryness and irritation of the lips, it is very important to follow a hypoallergenic diet, excluding strawberries, caviar, herbs, citrus fruits, spicy foods, and alcohol from the diet.

5. Do not lick your lips! Yes, the feeling of dryness causes great discomfort, but it is absolutely impossible to do this - and this is why: only the symptoms of dryness are aggravated, moreover, licking leads to the formation of wet cracks on the background of overdried skin. The lips continue to ache constantly, and soon there is a feeling of roughness, tightness and tingling - subsequently deep cracks form, which are difficult to treat.
6. You should always take care of the health of the teeth - check them for tooth decay, periodontal disease and other problems. Remediation of foci of a chronic infection in the oral cavity is the key not only to fresh breath, but also to smooth, delicate skin of the lips.
7. It is necessary to increase the amount of fluid drunk to avoid dehydration. The best option is a glass of clean water in the morning and half an hour before a meal.
8. It is worth maintaining the humidity in the room in which the most time is spent. It is especially important not to dry the skin in winter.
9. To improve the condition of the delicate skin of the lips, it is worth resorting to the use of anti-inflammatory ointments, creams and special masks. It can be:
   • vegetable oils (olive, sea buckthorn, jojoba oil);
   • tetracycline, erythromycin and oxolinic ointments, drugs with glucocorticosteroids (sometimes hormone-containing ointments must be treated);
   • honey, sour cream, curd masks; masks from decoction of flax seed, aloe juice, etc.

Caring for the beauty of the lips is an important daily ritual of every girl who wants to always look attractive to her man and everyone around. Compliance with these simple rules will always allow you to smile broadly and feel great!