I’ve had chronic chapped lips since I was born. So, I’ll assume that it was a nutritional deficiency that was passed to me by my mom. I assume ‘nutritional’ and 'passed through my mom' because I just found out that the same supplements that are being recommended for shingles are the same ones being recommended for this lip condition. ( B-complex, L-Lysine and C ) My mom, who has shingles, also has chapped lips, although it doesn’t seem to be as chronic as mine. So, again, I’ll assume that , while pregnant, since she was deficient in these nutrients, she didn’t have much to pass on to me, hence the reason why I am worse off than she. Now, my son (age 14) sometimes seems to get chapped lips. However, unlike my mom and me who never drink water, he drinks plenty during the day and always brings a bottle to bed to drink during the night. He’s been like this pretty much all his life because, since he was a baby, this is all I gave him when he was thirsty (no juices) in hopes that he would become a water drinker. My mom and I can barely get it down our throats!!!
Another person posted that he/she felt the lack of water intake was not the problem because he/she drank 8-10 glasses per day and still had this lip problem. My observation in this area is that some people can hold and retain liquids for a very long time and others can’t. For instance, I drink one cup and almost immediately out come three! I have to actually ‘plan’ on when it’s a good time to drink because I don’t want to get caught driving or in a store without a bathroom nearby. I can’t see how my body has any time to utilize the water if it is getting rid of it (and more) almost instantly! My son doesn’t seem to have a problem with this. Perhaps it’s because his body actually uses the water to hydrate his body before expelling it? My acupuncturist claims that my body has gone without water for so long that it no longer knows what to do with it and so removes it as soon as it comes in. She says my body will start to absorb it once it gets used to it. Another thought about the assimilation of water is that perhaps we are not drinking the RIGHT type of water. I read that if you drink properly Alkalized Water that your body uses it more efficiently and therefore you don’t even need to drink what is normally recommended....which btw, for those who do not know, it's half your body weight in ounces.
The one time in my whole life that I have not had chapped lips was during a week when I stayed in Ixtapa in the state of Zihuatanejo in Mexico. I had assumed that because the climate was humid that it had kept my whole body hydrated enough, allowing my lips to stay moist and not go through the normal drying and peeling that I have always experienced. NOW, another person brought up the fact that he (?) too had a similar experience in Mexico. He did not say where in Mexico nor what the climate was like... only mentioned that it might have been attributed to the water exposure during surfing. He thought it might have been a nutrient in the ‘dead Sea Salt .’ Another person posted that when in humid weather it seems to make no difference with this lip problem. The person does not state where, or for how long he/she remained in humid weather. I’ve been in humid areas, as well and I have not noticed improvement either, but remember, I said I was in this humid part of Mexico a whole week. Do we have anyone here that actually lives in a place with constant humidity? If so, and we could rule that out, perhaps it was the water or a combination of the water, humidity and the warmth? My last input, for now, is that I live in a climate that is a little more to the cool and dry side. I look forward to reading your contributions as well as your thoughts about mine. Please post any similarities you might have in common with me or what conditions you think might be related (deficiency-wise) to this lip problem.

Perhaps this theory has some weight. I use to drink way too much coca cola when I was young to the point wheer that was mostly all I was drinking. The first time I went to my family doctor about this problem he told me he sees this all the time and I should drink lots of water. So I drank nothing but water for maybe a month and didnt see any effect and I returned to old habits. I eventually wisened up and stopped drinking coke but unfortunately started drinking lots of coffee and tea. for the past month or so I have only been drinking water without any effect except I do piss rediculous ammounts. However in hs I ran cross country and remember drinking plenty of water and gatorade for atleast the 3 yrs I played. But, I also think I drank pleny of coke too. I dont remmeber having this problem since I was young I think the earliest I remember was around 8th grade. I attribute it to a nasty sunburn I got but I really dont remeber how it initially happened. Anyway maybe this can help your thesis.

Got this from biting my lip that had split from cold weather. I was curious(stupid) to find out how much of my lip I could bite off thinking it would grow right back like everything else usually does.It doesnt work that way does it?
The thing that change peeling & attributed to more peeling was Palmers Scar Serum. After using this(lots of vitamin E) my lips were never the same. Top & bottom. Dried,cracked,peeled, healed much more differently. Its like I got an infection or something using it. It turned my lips yellow crusty color. Of course that didnt happen anytime before. Afterwards I started getting the scaling with the peeling.

I do believe mine is caused by stress, which causes me to bite my lips and otherwise manipulate them in ways that cause them to peel. In my childhood I only bit the top middle part, and that was the only part affected, but I never thought much of it and would just bite it off again as soon as the skin came back.

I had some anxiety issues in college and got to the point where I just bit off as much of my lips as I could reach with my teeth, and again I would just keep doing that whenever I detected a piece of skin sticking off. Eventually I decided this made my lips look bad so I stopped biting them, and that's when I noticed the skin wouldn't heal normally. Then it became a sort of chicken/egg thing, where I wondered if the skin was messed up because I bit it, OR if I bit my lips because the skin was messed up but never realized it. I'm pretty sure the nervous lip-biting habit caused this though, and when I get stressed out I still tend to mess with my lips. And I believe it doesn't heal properly even when I do leave them alone because I messed with them for too long.

I was the one you're referring to that posted about the weather having no affect on the lip condition. I'm from Connecticut, which has hot, humid weather in the summer and cold winters. My lips were neither better nor worse in the winter or the summer. Coffee and tea do seem to make my lips worse, but only when they come into contact with them- if I drink iced coffee through a straw, my lips aren't affected.

For the record, my symptoms for the most part are just thickening/dying off of the skin and peeling. They don't bleed, and I get redness and burning occasionally. My entire lip isn't affected, only where the lips meet on the top and bottom. Outer regions look fine although they do get the occasional burning/redness thing for no known reason.

Odds are we don't all have the same underlying issue.

My dentist & I think my case was viral due to the timing of the onset and the dramatic response to the L-lysine. The research on herpes & lysine suggest that it's the balance of arginine & lysine which impacts viral replication. High arginine to lysine encourages replication. High lysine to arginine stops replication.

Peeling lips can also be symptom of riboflavin deficiency. (there are over 40 things that have "peeling lips" as a symptom on wrongdiagnosis.com)

There is also always the possibility that it's an eczema/dermatitis thing made worse by stress and certain weather conditions.

I think the people who have bitten/picked/chewed their lips may have triggered an exaggerated response to injury. A cellular hyperplasia type response. Like the lips are trying to make a callus to protect themselves but it doesn't take.

This past Monday I started the nutrients (L-Lysine, C, and B's) the lemon juice during the day and the Castor oil/petroleum jelly at night. (Castor Oil was HIGHLY recommended by Cayce in many of his readings, so I think this is a great idea)
So far, I've noticed that the cycle is a lot slower. Normally my lips would peel on a daily basis. Right now my lips feel and look ALMOST normal.

BTW.... if you are going to post about your success or failure with certain treatments, it's not going to do any good if you don't give the details.
For instance, someone posted that NO MATTER what he/she did, nothing worked.
I, for one, will assume that this person is either a TROLL, and will pay no attention and definitely give no credence.... OR... I'll assume this person DID in fact try the treatment........ for one whole day!!!!!!! Again.... no details = no help.
Also, to those that did find something helpful.... PLEASE tell us how long, how much...etc. Also, I don't know if this matters, but your sex might be an important factor as well. It would be interesting to find that the people who are/are not experiencing good results might all be of one gender. Or one type of treatment works better for one than another? SO..... if it's not too much to ask... please tell us what you are.... THANK YOU!