I have never licked my lips and neither has my four year old son who also has the condition.

Prehaps if you know you did excessively lick your lips I suppose that could be your problem.

In my case and I believe many other people's case the reason why doctors don't know about this internal problem because they haven't examined us internally. I mean how many of us have had gastroscopy and colonoscopies? I feel that if enough of us had these proceedures doctors may find a common appearance of our bowel walls, namely excessive irritation from acidity in our undigested foods. Your lips and mouth are very much a part of your whole GI tract. Even doctors admit that.

Just because you may have regular bowel motions and well formed stools it does not necessarily mean you have good digestion. I believe that something has upset our digestive enzymes and bile (which is necessary for proper digestion), therefore we do not break down our food properly which causes the irritation in the bowel. The acidic food particles then leaks through the bowel wall into the blood stream and this may be how the lips get affected by the acidity, through the blood vessels leading up to the lips.

Hello,
I am in complete agreement with you, I don't think it is an internal problem and the only people who seem to are those who believe in or are qualified in Eastern medicine. I say this as I have been to two fully qualified Chinese Doctors, who have prescribed me copious amounts of Chinese herbs, leaves and anything else you can make a disgusting cup of muddy brown tea from. All at a cost of £40 (approx $80 U.S) per week, for seven bags worth of magic tea.

Their beliefs are, that the reason our lips are dry and peeling is because we do not have enough moisture in our bodies due to the fact that we are putting to much heat into our stomaches through alcohol, fizzy drinks, spicy foods, crisps and anything that's remotely greasy.

I've been eating all of these foods for most of my life and never once was I a lip picker/peeler until my cheilitis started over six years ago, so I was a bit pissed off when I had to give up all of the things I liked. The Doctor even advised me to come off my pennicillin, which I did to the annoyance of my Dermatologist who gave me an ultimatum and told me basically if I carried on not taking my pennicllin (which she advised and still does that it will help me), then she won't treat me.

So, seeing as this tea wasn't making the slightest bit of difference apart from making me poor, I decided to stick with what my Dermatologist said and eat and drink what I want, cos this conditions depressing enough without having to give up some of the finer pleasures in life. I mean, don't get me wrong, I do believe that alternative medicine is effective at curing people, just not people who suffer from Cheilitis.

At the end of the day, we need to listen to our Dermatologists even though sometimes we think they're not doing enough to help. Believe me, I know it's depressing I've been off work with it three times totalling over a year, so I know what it feels like when someone comes along with an easy solution to the cause, only to be let down and left feeling deflated.

Hope this info. was helpful,

The Grinch.

My children both developed this condition after a severe food poisoning, after eating seafood, we suspected ciguratera toxin, as they had most of the symptoms including the hot-cold reversal. It is a terrible toxin that is food born and takes a long time for the body to get rid of. Their pediatrician didn't know what to do and after much research, we treated our kids ourselves with N-acetyl-cysteine and methylcobalamin (a special form of B12 that helps with nerve regrowth and repair). I've also read of a testimony of a person curing themselves of EC with the Liver Flush alone.
My kids are 99% healed now, but previously their lips would burn as well as have the peeling look. So, there may be different causes for this condition but for some, it definitely is internal. Can any of you think of a time you might of had a severe food poisoning? This toxin is grossly under-reported by doctors because most have never heard of it nor have any experience in diagnosing it, yet millions are affected by it annually and this will increase as sea pollution is on the rise. The toxin itself without intervention can take up to 20 years to be expelled from the body.