We are in the thick of the ‘dry’ season in most northern and northeastern stats. What that often translates into is dry skin - and many times - dry, chapped and/or cracked lips. While it’s somewhat normal for your lips to periodically shed and regenerate, if you’re noticing this ‘turnover’ happens more often than it seems it should, there may be something more at work.

Lip Skin and Cell Turnover

You may have noticed periods where you lips seem to almost be “shedding”. They may even peel off in sheets. Word to the wise, don’t force this peeling by pulling the sheets off, you should make sure they’re ready to come off and instead use a warm wet washcloth to gently encourage the skin to come off naturally. Otherwise you can add sore, bloody lips in to the mix if you’re prematurely trying to pull off the shedding pieces.

Regular, periodic shedding of the skin on the lips is actually fairly normal. It just becomes suspicious, and perhaps a symptom of something more like an infection with a herpes simplex virus when it seems to be happening continuously for longer periods of time, or happening at frequent intervals. Herpes simplex viruses can be the cause behind chafed, chronically dry, continuously shedding, cracked or bleeding lips which may be accompanied by pustules or sores. These blisters are commonly called cold sores. Related: Kick Cold Sores Before They Start - New Herbal Relief Balm

Cold sores are often confused with canker sores, which are sores and bumps that form inside the mouth - usually due to some sort of trauma. They can be exacerbated by drinking a lot of highly acidic beverages, and can be caused by inadvertent biting of the inside of the mouth.

How to Know When Chronic Dryness Means Something More

If your lips are chronically dry for a long period of time, and it happens to be accompanied by a flushing of the lip color to a deeper crimson tone, this could be a sign. Although it can be really fun to suddenly have deeper colored lips, it often means that there is some sort of infection at work. Especially if it was preceded by a distinct tingling feeling that feels a little different than just normal weather related dryness.

Anyone who has chronic cold sores knows the difference after a while. You can even help to fend off the onset of a flare up by taking certain precautions.

Supplements that Can Be Useful

Lysine is a good supplement to keep on hand if you have recurrent cold sores. Some studies have shown that regular supplementation of lysine, which is a fairly inexpensive supplement, helps to ward off cold sore outbreaks. Garlic is also a good one to keep on hand, as well as your typical run of the mill vitamin C.

We’ve talked about red light treatments as well. Red light is a really effective, noninvasive anti-aging and skin improvement therapy that helps to treat discoloration as well as rejuvenate collagen production. It also unbelievably helps to regrow hair!

Another pleasant side effect of red light treatments is that it has shown some therapeutic benefits for cold sore prevention and treatment. This may indicate it has some sort of effect on either neutralizing the virus that causes cold sores, or helps to somehow shorten the duration of an outbreak.

It Gets Easy to Tell the Difference After a While

All in all, telling the difference between run of the mill, weather-related lip dryness and something a little more chronic mostly has to do with duration. If something seems to be lingering around for more than a few days, then it’s probably a reinfection of the “fever blister virus”.

Since such a large portion of the population are at least carriers of these common viruses, it is the most likely explanation when the lips and surrounding area seem to be inflamed for longer periods of time. If you are one of the unlucky ones who doesn’t just have one flare up and then it goes dormant for the rest of your life, you’ll get pretty good at telling the difference. Related: Can the Amino Acid Lysine Help Treat Cold Sores?