Re: once the lips soak it up they become chronically dried

I've considerably increased my intake of healthy fats over the past 24months to the point where I get frequent facial dermatitis flare ups.

I fry A LOT more than I ever used to, and sometimes I blend cooking oils ; I will fry mushrooms in olive oil and then add them to a dish later on fried in coconut oil. So there's a case for getting to much of a good thing...

I also eat a tonne of nuts and seeds (as a vegan).. because lean protein sources are a little more inconveniant, I've noticed myself going for the foods like nuts and seeds which are easily consumed without fuss but on the flipside have a less desirable fat/protein ratio than say a lean chicken breast does.

I have naturally oily skin (which most people who have dermatitis seem to have) and which the malassezia fungi love, and so eating more fat means the sebaceous glands produce more sedum, which is a nutrient rich source of food for those wonderful malassezia.. typically my facial dermatitis is around the creases of my nose, eyebrows, beard (places that are a little more moist and less prone to drying out).. I know most people have dandruff/dermatits, it's just easier to accept when you understand the etiology as it at least gives me enough knowledge not to want to flood my face with antifungal creams or any of that shit.. I simply cut back on fats and wash my face more, the itchy rashes disappear in a few days.

The reason I mention this is because until recently I've been trying to link my EC to my dermatitis, thinking if I could only find the driving force behind one (being also skin related) it would help me eliminate the other... so, for the past week or so I've done an elimination diet.. thinking the EC may be due to a food sensitvity/allergy, but I've found no correlation...

At one point I believed the redness/inflammation on the inferior lip is caused from some kind of malabsorbtion/autoimmune response.. now I think it's just a show of blood capillaries and not related to allergy/autoimmunity, just the blood coming and going in lesser or greater capacity depending on bodily changes.

I think my other symptoms (sneezing, mild headaches, sudden tiredness) MAY be coming from the contact of topical irritants i.e. food with the weakened statum corneum (outermost layer of the lip).. keep in mind that some of us have had EC for a lifetime.. a long enough time to allow all sorts of nasty e.g. microbes, oxidative stressors, UV radiation, toxic materials, etc, to play havoc... the mouth being dense with bacteria, it's the worst possible place to have a longterm, recurring open wound.

Besides hydration (thanks for mentioning), I've gone back to managing my EC topically ; my favourite barrier of choice is coconut oil, and I've made an effort not to mouthbreath (as this obviously pulls moisture away from the area)... I just can't figure out what to do next.. if diet/gut issues are not to blame, I'm left with managing it superficially.. and so far so bad on that one