According to traditional Chinese medicine, chapped lips are caused by liver fire

In autumn and winter, the weather is relatively dry, and it is easy for the lips to become dry and cracked, and in severe cases, they may even bleed. The most common solution is to drink water or apply lipstick to moisturize. However, according to traditional Chinese medicine, chapped lips are caused by liver fire. These two methods are not very effective. If they persist for a long time, we must actively find the root cause and solve it correctly to avoid causing a big impact on us.

Our lipstick belongs to the mucous membrane or more precisely the oral mucosa. The mucous membrane is extremely thin, and has far fewer collagen fibers underneath than the skin, so it can hold less water. Dry weather is an external environmental factor that causes dry lips.

Traditional Chinese medicine says that spring and autumn are the times when yin and yang transform. In autumn, the yang energy decreases, which manifests as a contraction on the entire surface of the body. In spring, due to the dry wind and air outside, some people feel a rise in liver fire, which manifests as dryness of qi and blood.

In this case, dry weather is indeed the main cause of chapped lips, but does that mean chapped lips are not a disease?

Dry lips is a sub-state of inflammation of our lip tissue, which means it has not yet reached the level of inflammation, but is about to become inflamed.

This means that if you just feel dry lips without any other symptoms, it is not considered a disease and can be treated by yourself through hydration and other methods. So, what kind of dry lips is a disease? What disease is this?

Once the lips start to peel, which we call desquamation, the lips are basically in the inflammatory stage. If the condition becomes more serious with the formation of short linear cracks, with blood oozing out of the cracks and even scabs forming, then this is a typical or severe inflammation, and is a condition called cheilitis.

Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes that the spleen opens up at the mouth and its essence is in the lips. People with weakened spleen function will find that their lips are drier, pale, dry and flaky.

It seems that chapped lips may indeed be a disease. Cheilitis includes chronic cheilitis and acute cheilitis. Among them, chronic cheilitis is the most common in life, and its main manifestations are desquamation, redness, swelling and chapped lips. In the treatment of cheilitis, wet compresses on the lips are a very important part.

However, many patients often fail to master the correct methods, which leads to recurrence of the disease and unsatisfactory treatment results. So, what is the correct way to apply wet compress?

We take out a cotton pad with a width and length suitable for lip red, pour a small amount of liquid medicine, and then pick up one end with tweezers and let it drip down until it can no longer drip the liquid medicine, and then cover the patient's lips with it. Every three to five minutes, use tweezers to move some of the medicine onto the cotton pad and keep it in a wet compress for 20 minutes. If you don't have these medicines, you can also use light salt water.

After applying the wet compress, apply Vaseline or lip balm in time to lock in moisture. In fact, there is a folk remedy for chapped lips in real life, which involves applying sesame oil. Is this approach feasible?

This means that when the lips are inflamed, applying oil alone will not achieve the desired therapeutic effect. However, we can apply lip oil in the dry season to prevent cheilitis.

Traditional Chinese medicine reminds: Be sure to avoid the habit of licking your lips and tearing dry skin with your hands. This is also the key cause of chronic cheilitis. In clinical practice, there are many patients who suffer from cheilitis due to neglect of these details. Therefore, if your lips are peeling or cracking, do not take it lightly. It is recommended to go to the hospital for relevant diagnosis.