What causes swollen lips?

There are many reasons for swollen lips, so if you want to effectively improve and solve them, you should first distinguish and understand the causes. For example, some are caused by food allergies, while others may be caused by viral infections or bacterial infections, so they must be treated differently.

1. Food

They mainly include animal protein (such as fish, shrimp, crab, shellfish, meat, milk and eggs), plant foods (such as berries, strawberries, cocoa, tomatoes and garlic) and certain food condiments and additives. Some of these foods can act as allergens and cause allergic reactions in the body, while others can stimulate mast cells to release histamine.

2. Medication

Many drugs cause this disease by causing allergic reactions in the body. Common ones include penicillin, serum preparations, various vaccines, furazolidone and sulfonamides, etc.), and some drugs can be histamine releasers (such as aspirin, morphine, codeine, quinine, iodide, atropine, pilocarpine, poppycorene and polymyxin B, etc.).

3. Infection

Various viral infections, bacterial infections and parasitic infections.

4. Physical factors

Various physical factors (such as cold, heat, sunlight, friction and pressure) can cause illness in some patients.

5. Animal and plant factors

Animal fur, insect toxins, snake venom, jellyfish toxins and pollen, etc.

After the above-mentioned food, drug, bacteria and other antigens or haptens enter the body, they act on plasma cells to produce IgE, which attaches to mast cells, causing them to degranulate and release biologically active substances such as histamine, bradykinin, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and slow-reacting substances, causing small blood vessels and capillaries to dilate and increase permeability, causing tissues to swell rapidly. Hereditary angioedema is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner and is primarily caused by a defect in C1 esterase inhibitor function.