some thoughts on our condition

i've been suffering from chronically peeling lips since winter 2010. looking at older photos, i realized that my upper lip was already involced in the peeling process since winter 2009 (triangular patch in the middle + slim areas extending to the left and the right) but i just didn't realize it.

so as some other members already stated, i prefer the term "peeling lips" instead of "exfoliative cheilitis" because many of us, including me, show no signs of inflammation on their lips

my case is a moderate one, peeling cycle is 2-5 days; at their worst stage, most people will just see "dry, cracked lips" there, the crusts look like regular dry skin

i've always been a lip biter, picker and licker which eventually lead me to developing this condition, the time when the lower lip became involved, i was emotionally stressed, did not eat a lot and smoked a lot of cigarettes and herb
recently, i did the candida spit test and according to that, i have severe candida overgrowth
i felt tired many times throughout the last few years and my diet, although not unhealthy, has been pretty one-sided most of the time, barely any sweets but also very few vegetables, fresh fruits and a LOT of carbohydrates (dry bread being the most common one)

i think that our condition (i prefer to call it condition, it's neither a disease nor a symptom (although it can be the latter, in case people sufferers also have systemic diseases that ->also<- manifest in chronic lip peeling)
in MANY casess, particularly the ones that resulted out of lip licking/biting are caused by "bad saliva"
there most be something in our saliva that causes the skin to break down, inhibits the growth of new, healthy one and instead brings about dry, flaking skin
many people lick and bite their lips a lot, but only very few develop this condition

i'm guessing that what many of us are dealing with, is a type of fungus that is very witty and sneaky and very hard to beat (standard antifungal topicals don't seem to do the job there)
because our lips come in contact with saliva so often, it is damn heard for them to heal and apart from that, if it is indeed a fungus that causes many of our afflictions,
even with the absence of saliva, it would take a long time to get beaten
although there might be many systemic and psychological causes, i think it's still mainly a skin problem
systemic and emotional imbalances make it worse of course

some weeks ago, i saw a guy, a friend of a friend of mine and he constantly licked his lips in a repetetive manner and a circular motion and guess what, they areas he kept licking were affected by what we call EC
i think, he didn't even realize it, cause pieces of dry skin were attached to his lips, pieces that selfconscious people like us would never dare to go out with
this guy made an overall "sick" impression, he talked with a low voice, was pale in his face, did not smile a lot etc.
i'm sure, he suffers from candida overgrowth or something like that too...

well i wrote a lot of random stuff here, maybe someone wants to respond, i'd be happy for new thought inputs