Chapped Lips Remedies: Discover Causes and Treatments for Dehydrated Lips

Chapped lips often cause pain and discomfort, making it feel like much more than just a case of dry skin. The dryness and cracking can be caused by cold, dry air capturing the moisture from our mouths, but what other factors can cause chapped lips? And what are some of the best chapped lips remedies to quickly mediate the pesky problem?

A number of factors can lead to chapped lips, and dehydration is one of them. Simply staying hydrated can help you avoid dry, irritated lips. But, sometimes we realize this a little too late. Creating healthy everyday habits to keep yourself hydrated allows your body to function at its best and wards off chapped lips.

Adding DripDrop electrolyte mix to your water can help you quickly rehydrate while also tasting delicious.

Symptoms of Chapped Lips

• Dryness: Lips may feel rough and lack moisture.

• Peeling or flaking skin: If the skin on or around your lips is peeling, don’t bite or tear it off. That can worsen the problem and lead to wounds.

• Cracking skin: Small cracks can appear on the lips, and the skin may feel tight.

• Redness or swelling: Lips may appear red or inflamed, and in some cases, the lips may swell.

• Itchy lips: If you’re experiencing this symptom, once again, try not to rip or tear at your lips.

• Sores: Sores may appear on your lips or in your mouth and can be painful to the touch and complicate eating or drinking.

• Mild pain: This is independent of sores and is often accompanied by inflammation. This may become more irritating while eating or talking.

• Scaling skin: This can lead to peeling or flaking.

Though these symptoms represent varying degrees of chapped lips, they can all be annoying and uncomfortable. These are often symptoms caused by exposure to cold or harsh weather or may be related to dehydration. Help alleviate some of these symptoms with a chapped lips remedy, such as moisturizing lip balms or addressing the underlying causes like dehydration by drinking DripDrop, specially formulated to rehydrate your body fast.

Causes of Chapped Lips

Weather

One of the more common causes of chapped lips is cooler weather, particularly if the temperature and/or humidity level changes dramatically in a short period of time. In the fall and winter, humidity levels tend to drop, sapping latent moisture from the air.

But, you’re susceptible to chapped lips year-round as too much time in the sun can also cause cracking and dryness. The sun’s ultraviolet rays may be even more harmful than the cold as the radiation can cause actinic keratosis, or bumps that form on the lips and carry the potential to become cancerous. These should be removed by a physician.

Dehydration

Another very common cause of chapped lips is dehydration. Chapped lips occur when our lips don’t have the right amount of moisture. Lips don’t have the oil glands found elsewhere on human skin, making it impossible to fight back against dehydration with their own moisture. So, if we’re not taking in enough fluids, it only makes sense that our lips will eventually feel dried out.

Staying hydrated and drinking plenty of water may be all that stands between you and healthy lips. And DripDrop is here for fast hydration. This patented formula acts to quickly rehydrate your body and mitigate mild to moderate dehydration symptoms.

Bad Habits

Whether it’s conscious or unconscious, licking your lips can have the opposite outcome of what you intended. Licking your lips makes sense if they’re feeling dry, right? It applies moisture from your mouth to your lips like a natural balm, solving the problem. While it is a short-term solution, it can actually exacerbate the problem in the long run because saliva pulls moisture from your lips when it evaporates.

Smoking can also dry out the lips.

Nutrient Deficiency

Dry, chapped lips can be a sign your diet is missing certain nutrients, particularly if you’re experiencing this symptom regularly. Seeking out foods that are high in certain electrolytes may help alleviate the problem.

• Zinc contributes to healthy skin, and a deficiency can cause dryness.
• Iron plays a role in healthy skin, too, but it also helps the body heal wounds. Because of this, a lack of iron can both cause dry lips and hinder the body while it’s trying to remedy the issue.
• Deficiency of vitamins B2, B6, B9 or B12 can also be counted as a possible cause for chapped lips. Conversely, an overabundance of vitamin A can cause chapped lips.

Ingredients in Food

Flavorings, including cinnamon, citrus, peppermint and mint can irritate and worsen chapped lips. Long-term contact with salt can also be debilitating to your lips.

Yeast Infection

It may sound strange, but the buildup of warm saliva can lead to an oral yeast infection. Symptoms include pain while swallowing, cottonmouth and dry or cracked lips.

Chapped Lips Remedies

Experiencing chapped lips is a very common problem, which means there are tons of chapped lips remedies out there — from useful home remedies to easy habits you can integrate into your everyday life.

Apply a Balm

When looking for a chapped lip remedy involving a balm, you want to make sure it contains petroleum jelly or shea butter. A balm with UV protection is preferable. Avoid balms with menthol, eucalyptus, or any fragrance as this can potentially further irritate your lips or even cause an allergic reaction.

Apply the balm several times throughout the day and before bed. If you’re going to spend time in the sun, make sure to apply a balm with SPF 30 or higher. Balms that include titanium oxide or zinc oxide protect against the sun.

Stay Hydrated

As mentioned, dehydration can be a cause of chapped lips — and it can cause a whole host of other symptoms, too. Everything from impaired cognitive function and altered mood to physical exhaustion and hunger can stem from a case of dehydration, and it can alter the lips, too.

Staying hydrated is good for your skin, but since lips are thin layers of skin that can’t produce their own moisture, lips are specifically susceptible to the perils of dehydration.

Making an electrolyte powder mix like DripDrop part of your daily hydration routine can help combat pesky symptoms of dehydration like chapped lips while also giving your body the fluids and electrolytes it needs.

Use a Humidifier

Because dry weather is another common culprit of chapped lips, investing in a humidifier is an excellent chapped lips remedy. A humidifier does exactly what its name implies — it adds humidity to the air. Keeping a humidifier in areas where you spend a lot of time (such as near your bed, in the living room, or even in your office) can positively impact your skin health, including your lips while also improving the state of your nose and throat.

Visit a Dermatologist

If you’re experiencing severe symptoms like bleeding or oozing, or your chapped lips have lasted longer than a few weeks and symptoms are not dissipating after trying chapped lips remedies, go to a dermatologist. A medical professional will be able to provide further advice and identify whether it's more than just dry lips, as it could be a case of eczema or dermatitis. Infections can also cause dry lips.

Hydration Hack: Use DripDrop for Fast Hydration

Dry, chapped lips can be painful, uncomfortable and unsightly. But a number of treatment methods and chapped lips remedies exist for alleviating symptoms and eventually returning your lips to normal.

Focusing on your hydration is a great starting point because it impacts so many other bodily functions. Keeping yourself hydrated and healthy will lessen your chance of getting chapped lips and prevent other dehydration symptoms.

Electrolyte mix DripDrop is an oral rehydration solution that uses the sodium-glucose cotransport hydration shortcut to help your body absorb sodium more quickly, relieve symptoms fast. But DripDrop only contains one-half the amount of sugar found in traditional sports drinks, and it’s available in a sugar-free option with DripDrop Zero.

Make DripDrop a part of your regular hydration routine. Plus, you can save 25% when you sign up for a subscription!