My cheilitis started 3 years ago. I had chapped lips, and picked at them. It got to the point where i had ripped off the entire top layer of skin on my lips. Now they crust over, turn white when wet, etc. I can think of at least 5 other people who suffer from this. Its not that uncommon.

Basikally my biopsy showed Epithelial Hyperplasia. The T-Cells are activating pro-inflammatory cytokines, which causes acanthosis, hyperkeratosis, and perakeratosis. What this means is that there is a abnormal thickening of the epidermis, caused by an excessive amount of skin cells. I think this disease may be similar to psoriasis, but not identical. It is essentially an immune system disorder. We aggrivated our lips by picking at them, and the immune system overreacted. Now the cells are being replaced too fast, leading to crusted skin.

I think there are two possibilities to healing this. One is with immunosuppression, and the second is with an antimitotic (i.e. something that stops cell division)

Protopic healed a little portion of my lips, which confirms that there is something going on with our immune system. A number of people have been cured using Protopic as well. Perhaps the oral form of Protopic (Prograf) might be helpful.

If anybody can talk their doctor into giving them a prescription for Prograf, I suspect they will see dramatic results. Prograf has been shown to be an effective treatment for Psoriasis and eczema, which is similar to what we are suffering from.

If that doesn't work, perhaps oral Elidel or topical Elidel might work.

If that still doesn't work, we should look into antimitotics.

If all else fails, I might try going on fumaric acid esters. These have been extremely effective in psoriasis, and might help us, since I beleive its related.

I'm currently seeing a naturopath who has tried a number of things. So far I have not seen any improvement with him, so I've been doing a lot of research in hopes that I find a cure. I might try investigating chinese herbs with him as well.

Dermatologists have not been extremely helpful. The last one I went to told me I have obsessive compulsive disorder and need to stop picking at my lips. Well I tried that and it didn't work.

So far, I've done liver/kidney detox, skin detox. I've tried multivitamins, L-Glutamine, fish oil, zinc, potassium, methylcobalamin, N-Acetyl-Cysteine, Vitamin A drops, Vitamin C, topical Vitamin A, calendula ointment, probiotics, and topical Vitamin E. I've probably tried more things but thats all I can think of right now. The closest I have ever come to healing my lips was with Protopic.

I think if we really start digging into the cause of this we can fix it. It lies somewhere in the way that mucosal lining reacts to external trauma.