Natural treatment of chapped lips

We’ve all faced the dryness, redness, cracking, flaking, and soreness of chapped lips. Typically, they’re a harmless, yet uncomfortable and unsightly problem. Chapping happens when your lips can’t produce natural oils to moisturize themselves. Cold and chilly winter air, wind and the low humidity indoors all leads to a crisis for your lips in the form of dehydration. Once moisture is sapped from skin cells, they become fragile, so your lips develop tiny splits and cracks. These tiny tears are what make chapped lips so painful - heat, acidic food, even toothpaste can aggravate raw skin…. Read more

Vitamin deficiencies, dehydration, smoking, allergic reactions, sun and wind exposure, harsh weather changes, and skin disorders can all cause chapped lips, and chapped lips can lead to other health problems, like cold sores and bacterial infections. Read more about its causes here What causes chapped lips

Your lips can become chapped and dry when they're exposed to the sun, wind or cold air. A lip balm containing petroleum or beeswax will provide a barrier and help seal in moisture.
What not to do

It's very tempting to pick and bite off flakes of dried skin, but this will only make your lips bleed and heal more slowly. Licking our lips doesn’t help, because it dehydrates the skin, and our saliva also contains acids that helps break down food and these irritate the lip skin: as does the process of scrubbing peeling or biting off skin flakes.

Irritating the skin around your mouth may also trigger a cold sore if you're prone to getting them.

It's also tempting to keep licking dry or cracked lips. But this will only dry your lips more, as the saliva evaporates and the repeated licking or wetting "washes" the natural grease off the skin.

Factors inside and outside your body can dry out your lips. Want to keep your whistle wet?

Drink up. You know it has tons of benefits for your body. One of those is to fight the dehydration that leads to chapped lips.

Use a humidifier indoors. These devices provide the moisture your lips and skin crave. It’s great to have one at work as well as at home, especially in the winter. Turn it on at night to replenish your skin while you sleep.

Don’t lick your lips. While it might seem like a good idea at the time, running your tongue over your lips is the worst thing you can do for them. As your saliva dries, it takes more moisture from your skin. Reach for your lip balm instead.

Natural treatment

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)

Use fresh peanut oil to treat chapped lips.

Caution: Peanuts are not recommended for those who suffer from arthritis and people with weak stomachs. Those who suffer from peanut allergies should not use this treatment.