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You get ready to leave the intimate lovingness of your theater and span for the winter ’s harsh atmospheric condition — and , of course of instruction , you ca n’t step pes out of doors without pocketing your trusted lip unction .
But have you ever wondered why your lips get wry in the wintertime ?
Why are lips so prone to chapping in the cold months of the year?
The response lie in lip ' unique anatomy , Dr. Luke Powles , a London - free-base physician and associate clinical director forBupa Health Clinics , told Live Science in an email . " The cutis on your mouth has a thinner protective roadblock compared to the rest of the skin on your face , which make it more susceptible to dehydration , " he said .
start at the " vermillion border " — the often - sharp line that demarcate lip tissue paper from the balance of the look — the tissue resemble the mucous membrane that line the interior of the mouth . It comprise of only three to five layer of tissue and does not contain any of the hair follicles or sweat secretor chance elsewhere on the font , according to the aesculapian resourceStatPearls .
Related : Can brim ointment make your chapped backtalk worse ?
In fact , " the cellular layers of skin on your grimace are up to six times thicker than find on your mouth , " Powles said . " Your backtalk also have fewer oil glands compare to other parts of the dead body . "
This add up into play during the winter , when the air outside gets colder and less humid and people switch on the heating in their abode and occupation . This uninterrupted exposure to juiceless air dehydrates the delicate skin of the lips , make it to crack , peel and bleed — a condition scientifically known as common cheilitis , Powles state .
While it ’s beguiling to seek to ease the discomfort of coarse cheilitis by licking your lips — and we sometimes do this without thinking — this may actually aggravate the problem . That ’s because spit contain digestive enzymes , such as amylase , which bankrupt down starches into sugars , and lipase , which help the digestion of fat .
" When you lick your lips , the dried spittle take away the raw oily protective layer that helps keep your lips levelheaded , " Powles state . Over time , these enzyme can damage the lip shin itself and contribute to evaporation .
Having astuffy nose — a stylemark of the winter cold and flu time of year — can also break the lip to spare saliva by force a person to breathe through their sass , according to a 2020 review article in theInternational Journal of Women ’s Dermatology .
teetotal lips are not only an artistic issue but also a medical one . For object lesson , chapping can leave sassing skin more prostrate to infections that penetrate the skin roadblock , Nina Prisk , an aesthetic nurse prescriber at Update Aesthetics clinic in London , told Live Science by electronic mail . Microbes such as the bacteriumStaphylococcus aureusor yeastCandida albicanscan fuel inflammation in the lip and thus exasperate the symptom of cheilitis , according to a 2018 followup issue in the journalActa Clinica Croatica .
— Why are human lip red-faced ?
— Do humidifiers help with dry skin ?
— How to hydrate cutis for a healthy freshness
If yourchapped lipsdon’t amend when you use lip balms , ointments or ahumidifier , it may be worth speak with a medical provider about more modern intervention , Cleveland Clinic counsel .
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice .
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