I'm happy to see that you're updating your website. I have a question, did you ever deal with infections? I've noticed that if I let the crusts build up, when it peels off, there's redness, irritation, and yellow liquidy spots that erupt. It looks like a staph infection or something, I tried waiting to see if it would go away but it got very painful and irritated. I always end up using a topical antibiotic. Did this ever happen to you? If so how did you deal with it.
You're an inspiration to all of us dealing with this. Thank you for keeping your website running for us to reference. God bless you.
I definitely got a similar thing to you, but I don't remember them being painful and irritated most of the time, they were just yellow and crusty. I did have the yellow liquid though for sure, but it wasn't painful.
Hello. Thank you very much for starting to rebuild the site and for making all the video's available.
Iam taking your advice of using Aquaphor (and/or other moisturisers) , no picking, i have tried two steroid creams but not the one you used (at this point) , getting more sun, good diet, trying my best to think positive thoughts which i have my good and bad days.
Anyway, thank you, you give all hope and inspiration.
Iam hoping that you will update "The real cure" section and explain to us what you think the root cause of EC is.
I have been watching some of the videos, i still have some questions and was going to sign up to your patreon. Let us know if you ever re up that.
I understand that you have a life.
I will make a small donation now. I'd love to know what you think the root cause is.
Iam currently getting patch testing done and about to see a naturalist.
I am working on the "real cure" section still, and want it to be great when I finally get to post it. It resolves a lot around positive affirmations and "knowing" you will cure yourself. If you have any questions on the videos you can leave them on that page as a comment on this site or on this forum, whichever you like. I'm not doing the Patreon thing anymore, as I want everyone to have the ability to ask questions, and allow anyone to respond to them. So I decided to do the donation only route.
To basically answer your question about the route cause without finishing the page, I believe it's because there is something or many things we are struggling with in life, and it's so difficult for us to face/deal with that our body tries to focus our attention on anything else, and thus it starts drying our lips our, and we focus on that and then the mild relief our minds get from thinking about whatever is paining us, it causes it to do it more...and thus a vicious cycle starts. But I'm going way more in depth when I talk about it. And thank you so much for your donation, I really appreciate it. This site is a lot more expensive to run than the other one, so it means a lot :)
The questions that i had that i dont recall seeing you mention is did aquaphor make the build up on your lips turn to "mush" like did it make the build up soft and mushy and turn white. Looking almost like you had cream or toothpaste or something on your lips?
I guess i dont know how you used aquaphor with so much build up without it having that effect on the crusts?
So you never fond any allergies or triggers or anything hey? You never had any infections?
Iam guessing that you ate very carefully as in cut things up small and drank through a straw?
I guess i never knew how you managed to get the build up so thick. And keep it on? For me the skin often splits or cracks(if i dont moisturise) or turns mushy(when i do moisturise) and comes off. Showering and teeth brushing and everything seems to be problematic.
But I've found that if i dont get lips too wet in shower and if i use an electric tooth brush and dont rinse my mouth, that helps.
I actually recently got the steroid cream that you were using but iam a bit afraid as i have used two different steroid creams in the past. One seemed to do nothing and one seemed to make my lips worse.
You applied the steroid cream both on the crusts and on the raw skin underneath when the crusts came off?
And i think that you said you didn't really have much red inflammation hey? Or much burning?
One last question, did you ever notice your bottom lip throbbing/pulsating? mine dose this. I cant really feel it but i can clearly see it when the raw skin is exposed when i look in the mirror. And when it's covered in crusts it seems to move around?
Anyway, iam going to continue trying to think positive and eat healthy, I've quit booze, get sun. I just dont moisturise constantly like you said due to it making the dead skin so mushy and white.
@shane.king8 Hey Shane! Sorry it took me a while to get back to you.
After I started using the aquaphor a lot (after the 8 months of leaving them alone) yes the buildup was mushy and whitish colored. That was its effect on the crusts, otherwise they would have just been hard, but after the aquaphor sits on them they turn a whiteish color and are mushy. I was just really careful to try to not push the buildup off, but sometimes it would come off. I used a fork and knife to eat as well as a straw to drink with everything. All in all it was very hard to do literally anything, but the main point of it all was to try to not remove the buildup, and if it happened to just not worry so much about it.
I hope the steroid cream is working for you. Yes I put it on wherever it would touch my lips, be it the top of the crust or the regular skin if the crust had fallen off, I didn't actually move the crusts to put it on though. From my experience, I wouldn't worry too much about the other creams not working for you, and I would just see if it works or not, the truth is that you really won't be "set back" much at all if it doesn't work.
I rarely remember having any burning, but my lips were definitely inflamed. They were bigger than normal, and only when I became fully cured would you be able to tell.
I do remember them pulsating from time to time, but not all the time. I wouldn't worry too much about it, in fact I would try my best to stop worrying about your lips completely, which I know is nearly impossible to do, but I truly think that shifting your focus away from them will help them start to heal.
Have you read my real cure section yet? I wasn't sure if you had or not.
thank you very much for rebuilding this site. I do have a question about your treatment.
I have been doing the constant moisture method using aquaphor for about 2 months, but my problem is that my lips never build up any skin and are constantly raw. They tend to hurt when i apply the aquaphor or talk for a longer period of time. Did you experience this as well? As far as I can tell from your videos your lips still built up skin even though you constantly used aquaphor right?
I switched to an organic lip balm for some time. With this my lips did build up skin, which would turn yellow and fall off after about 2 days or so. i stopped doing this after about 3 weeks because i dont feel that it is the right way to go, since my lips feel irritated when i apply the lip balm.
At the moment i am back to doing the constant moisture with aquaphor, but i am also applying apple cider vinegar to my lips 2-3 times a day for about 10min. When i apply the ACV i acutally see some vertical lines, but they disappear rather quickly.
So my question is if you experienced those constantly raw lips as well.
Again, thank you very much trying to help others getting rid of this stuff :)
Well, I'm wondering if you are talking all day? The only reason I could see your lips never building skin up would be if you are talking constantly. Have you been to the dermatologist to rule anything else out that would cause your lips to be raw constantly? Does this happen when you don't use Aquaphor? Perhaps you have an allergy to Aquaphor and should use a different product? I didn't experience unless I was at my call center job and talking on the phone constantly, but it was just my inner lips that gave me a lot of problems where they touched. My outer lips didn't hurt.
I see that they did build up skin when you used lip balm, so I'm wondering if you should switch to a product that isn't so hard as a lip balm, but isn't Aquaphor, but is a creamy kind of texture?
I don't know how much I would advice apple cider vinegar on the lips, it seems like it's a pretty harsh substance to use. Maybe try another product, and avoid that for a couple weeks and see what happens, and let me know. :)
thank you for your answer. I have been to about 5 dermatologists now and ruled out any allergies or fungal infections. I also got my blood tested about 1 year back, everything is normal.
I am not talking much, and I think I explained myself a bit wrong. I'm not completely sure if my lips dont build up skin when I moisturize them, it's more like the build-up is just so soft and weak that it peels off everytime I take a shower or brush my teeth, no matter how careful I am.
I had the same experience with vaseline and pretty much any moisturizer out there. With organic lip balm or some organic moisturizer my lips build up more skin when doing the constant moisture than when I apply vaseline or aquaphor, which I think is because the lips get more air that way. However the build-up still falls off at least once a day because it is so soft.
One dermatologist I have been to acutally said that too much creme is bad, since my lips need air to breath and fully heal. After 4 months of not putting anything on them the EC spread pretty much like you explained in your video so I stopped that. However, I don't think the constant moisture is the way to go for me, because the build-up peels multiple times a day when doing this.
I got the idea of apple cider vinegar from someone from curezone, who claimed to had gotten cured by using it. I have also seen improvements from this. After all, it works antibacterial, antifungal and therefore anti-inflammatory. It's also known to help with psoriasis.
So at the moment I am still applying the ACV 2-3 times a day to my lips (but just a really small amount) and I put on aquaphor for a few hours a day. That time seems to be enough to have them moisturize, but leave the build-up strong enough to not just fall off instantly.
I am trying not to focus on my lips too much, which actually seems to help a little. I always find that when I go outside or meet people, they actually get more dry and worse because I focus on them even more since I feel embarassed. So I'm trying my best to not focus on my lips, which is really hard to be honest.
As soon as summer starts I will try and get a lot of sun, since it also seems to help.
Daniel I'm struggling with EC from 4years n i want to ask u how often were u taking shower to takeoff the buildup and how do u apply steroid cream when aquaphor is sitting on ur lip from 10 days
I didn't ever take a shower to "takeoff the buildup" I would wait until it came off naturally by itself, and if it came off while I was lighting putting the aquaphor on it, then I wouldn't worry about it...but I was very careful. And you just put the steroid cream over the top, eventually the skin will come off and you can put the steroid cream directly on the lips at that point.
Unfortunately those are the only things I can't recover from my site deleting itself last time, and I didn't keep the hard drive they were originally on. :( however I took videos with a pretty good camera, so it should be good enough to screen shot, obviously not the best though. Sorry about that!
Thanks so much for taking the time and setting up this website. I think you truly understand what mutual support is all about. I went by the names lipshitz and c.s. on Curezone, and managed the peelinglips Wikispaces site until I hit a paywall.
You were a bright spot of hope for me all these years, and though I still have not fully healed from the condition, I have made considerable progress. I had similar emotional trauma and chapstick/vaseline abuse when this began for me, and finding love in spite of it all, being distracted by bigger concerns, and getting support from others seems to have helped. I understand now this was a critical component of your success. I have also been trying to not forcibly peel and think this is critical too. Perhaps many have not shared your success because of the challenges of recurring secondary infections, allergic sensitivities, chronic stress/depression, overuse of topicals. isolation and lack of sunshine (what I consider to be irritating/exacerbating factors). But stress and forcible peeling (through Martin's polling) seem to be top instigators of the condition, so they must be addressed too.
I want to ramp up the positivity (and sunshine) in 2020 and get us all healed as soon as possible. When I'm fully healed I'd love to interview you (and others who have healed) so we can share our stories together for all those sufferers who will come after us.
For now, I have just a couple questions: do you still feel like you need to moisturize all the time, or your lips will feel incredibly dry and tight? And did you ever get tested for Vitamin D levels?
Thank you for your message Colin! It's great to "see" you again, ha ha. Yeah I agree there are so many things that can happen to your lips after your body decides it doesn't need to focus on them anymore to distract you...so how you deal with addressing those issues is important too, but also another struggle we have to go through. Thankfully nothing appeared to happen to me during that time, but if it did my body was able to resolve itself.
As far as moisturizing all of the time, it's a VERY interesting question, which literally played a key part to me figuring out that it's the bodies way of distracting itself from whatever a person may be going through. I can literally go for hours and hours where I'm fully immersed in a conversation or movie or something, but the I even think about my lips, they instantly feel dry, but if I pay attention, I know that moments before they didn't "feel" dry. And I have recently started to do tests with myself to wait and not use lip balm when I have that "feeling" and for some time, it can be minutes to an hour or so, I won't think about it or need it again.
It happens all of the time for stressful situations. It's a way my body distracts itself. Say I'm about to meet someone new, or tell someone I know about an idea I have, anytime there is stress involved I always have this inherit "need" to put lip balm on. But as I have become extremely self-aware over the last few months I am discovering more and more what these reasons are. And they fundamentally return to stress-involved situations. (I feel I should add this to my story, as you helped me understand it even more just by asking those questions.
And yes I've been tested many times, and even had very in-depth tests, and everything always comes back normal. There was one test that said my liver functions were a bit higher than normal, but that was just because I was very depressed and going through a really hard time in my life, so I was drinking absurds amount. Amounts that would astonish most people. Which I shouldn't be proud of, but I am more interested in to see just how much my body and mind are able to handle. But I'm now at a point in my life where I've discovered so much, that I never have to (or want) to drink more than a glass or two of wine.
hello, i'm french and i don't understand english, i use google translation. I have a cheilite for 5 years and I would like to know your stages of healing please. I thank you in advance. here's a photo
Hey Daniel. Great idea adding a forum to your website.
I'm currently on week 3 of a diligent aquaphor/ steroid cream regiment, following your guidance closely. I have tried the aquaphor treatment many times in the past with no long term success, however this time is different, mainly because of self isolation due to covid-19 allowing me to take it far more seriously.
I can see skin forming under the aquaphor and can see vertical lines also. Although I'm not risking taking the aquaphor off to have a look at the skin just yet - it is still early days.
I'm using hydrocortisone cream and did have a question with regards to application. Did you wipe off the aquaphor before applying the steroid cream and then reapply the aquaphor? Or did you simply put the steroid cream on top of the aquaphor layers? Did you rub the steroid cream in or just gently apply it on the surface of the lips?
In your videos you also talk about build up and how it slowly reduced over time. Personally I haven't experienced any build up during this treatment, and I am trying to gauge the best time to start decreasing the amount of aquaphor I apply. How were you able to tell your skin was ready to stop applying aquaphor?
Turns out I might be experiencing the build up after all. They are small white dots of buildup that are very well stuck on to the lip. They annoyingly seem to grow and make applying the aquaphor evenly a lot more difficult.
As of typing this message I'm on day 72 of my constant moisture method. Seen very positive results, no build up or peeling or white line for a long time now. However, I'm not fully healed yet,'ve I've basically plataeud and am stuck in this position of not improving but not regressing. I still use aquaphor daily and I've experimented with easing in some natural lip balms but I don't really know how to transition out of aquaphor, or when the right time is.
@Daniel Miller would you mind please elaborating on the end part of your journey, when you felt it was the right time to stop aquaphor and start normal lip balms, what sort of condition your lips were in etc. Thanks.
I just found your website and find it really interesting. I am way too aware of my lips drying out and things have become worse since I am a teacher. Just the tought that my lips could get dry and people could see it makes me feel uncomfortable, so I constantly sip on my water bottle. But when I talk an the phone I could talk for hours without having a sip of water or using any lip balm. It is certainly a reaction to stress und so far I have not find a cure for it.
The only things that actually cures it for a while is surfing. Hours of salt water and sun around my lips just make them perfect... for days and weeks. It is probably the natural form of a steroid cream, so it comes to calming your lips down, allowing your mind to not focus on them for an extended period of time and shifting that focus. Once your focus goes back to your lips, the process starts again.
I'd like to share my experience with you all. I've struggled with very dry lips for years so I would apply lip balm on them like 15 times a day. Then I would say a year ago I started biting my lips (I would take off the dead skin that I thought was unesthetical) and it felt like a layer of skin was missing, my lips were raw and burning. In March as quarantine started (I live in France) I decided to stop applying lip balm and stop peeling my lips, in hopes that they would heal and turn back to normal. I started to develop big ugly greenish crusts on my lips. It was horrible, I was terribly self-conscious and it was also very painful as my lips would burn all the time. My doctor prescribed me vaseline but it wasn't very helpful.
I discovered Daniel Miller's YouTube channel and I decided to try the "leave it alone method". Unfortunately the crusts kept falling off, usually when I brushed my teeth, leaving the skin underneath raw and swollen.
A Week ago I took off all the crusts off my lips and started applying aquaphor every half hour, and I gently exfoliate my lips after I brush my teeth. It's only been a Week but I'm already very satisfied with the results, the crusts are not coming back, my lips don't burn anymore, and I'm starting to see vertical lines again. It looks like a thin layer of skin has come back. I started decreasing the aquaphor, I only apply it 4 times a day now. I have some before and after pictures if some of you are interested.
Just a little precision: I know Daniel also did this constant moisture method except (if I understand correctly) he left the crusts on his lips during the process and applied aquaphor on top of them.
Hi. A French compatriot here. Thank you for sharing your experience with this nightmare. Would you mind please sharing your before and after pictures? Thanks again
I just wanted to make an update on a treatment that has been working for me. I've had EC for approximately 7 years, I am now 20 years old and it has been a nightmare. But I finally think I understand what has been wrong with me. I think that I've had an chronic allergic reaction to something, whether it's something I eat or something that I put on my lips. I've stopped anything from touching my lips, food, water, lip balm, even napkins. I suspect that some chemical or preservative in the napkins caused me to react how I have, I never stopped using paper napkins in the last 7 years so I think that was the real trigger. The only thing I use is Aloe vera straight from the plant before and after eating to create a barrier and clean my lips off. I've done this for 2 months and my lips have never felt better. They have some lines, but not a ton. They are more flexible than they have ever been. They don't peel nearly as much as before. I am excited to see how much better they will get.
I've tried everything under the sun. Nothing has worked. Modern medicine, homeopathy, eastern medicine, diets, creams, ointments, everything. The only thing that has moderately worked was an extremely healthy diet (unsustainable) and a topical steroid (the steroid made my lips worse after I got off them). This is the only thing that I have seen such progress. I am also exercising a good amount and eating relatively healthy, and while I'm sure it helps, I don't think it's why I am improving so rapidly.
I hope this might help some of you that are suffering. I have suffered for a long time, and to finally feel hope that I might one day be free of this illness, it gives me such drive to live my best life. Lmk if anyone has any questions or just wants someone to talk to. We can all get through this, good luck everyone!
Hello!
I have EC from 2017. From December 2019 I tried ‘leave alone method’ without biting/touching my lips.
But now I’dont know if it’s working or not.
So yesterday I started ‘constant moisture method’ with Aquaphor. Also long time ago I overused steroid cream (Elocom) because my allergy, so I’ll use only Aquaphor.
I plan to cure in 12 month, by July 2021. Wish me good luck...
Now I am on day 110 of my way to normal life. I’m applying Aquaphor every time.
It has left 72 days to point where I should see first results (6 month as Daniel said). And after that it will be other 183 days to normal condition.
@Daniel Miller when did you stoped using Aquaphor? I'm on that Point where my lips doesn't peel anymore and I got my vertikal lines back. But it still feels sensitive like a layer of skin is missing. I only getting a dead layer of skin at the border of the mucosa. If I stop using aquaphor my lips drying out and I getting bigger vertikal lines, then I put aquaphor back on it and they getting wet and elastic again without peeling anything off.
If I using flash light from my phone and looking through my skin, I can see Micro cracks is that normal ?
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I have a quick question about the constant moisture method.
I remember you said that you had very dry skin around your lips/ mouth after that period where you kept them dry all the time.
When you started the constant moisture method, did you also apply the aquaphor on the dry skin around your mouth, or just on your lips?
I am doing the constant moisture right now and I have found that when I don't apply the aquaphor around my lips, my lips don't burn as much as they do when I put the aquaphor around them. However, as soon as I stop applying aquaphor around my lips, that skin gets really dry again.
Thank you very much for your help.
PS: If anybody that had success with this method reads this, feel free to answer as well :)
Hello, I’m following that method for 144 days, and I don’t have dry skin around lips. Rather the opposite because Aquaphor softens from body heat and sort of spreads on the chin etc. So I have to wipe it off the chin with paper towel.
Maybe you have some cracking in the corners? I have that and I don’t think it’s a problem, it easily disappears when you are not applying too much on the regular skin in the corners (but applying on the lips in that area).
hey daniel, thank you very much for re-activating blog. I will review the blog. sun was very helpful last summer.
Daniel,
I'm happy to see that you're updating your website. I have a question, did you ever deal with infections? I've noticed that if I let the crusts build up, when it peels off, there's redness, irritation, and yellow liquidy spots that erupt. It looks like a staph infection or something, I tried waiting to see if it would go away but it got very painful and irritated. I always end up using a topical antibiotic. Did this ever happen to you? If so how did you deal with it.
You're an inspiration to all of us dealing with this. Thank you for keeping your website running for us to reference. God bless you.
Hey Molly!
I definitely got a similar thing to you, but I don't remember them being painful and irritated most of the time, they were just yellow and crusty. I did have the yellow liquid though for sure, but it wasn't painful.
Hello. Thank you very much for starting to rebuild the site and for making all the video's available.
Iam taking your advice of using Aquaphor (and/or other moisturisers) , no picking, i have tried two steroid creams but not the one you used (at this point) , getting more sun, good diet, trying my best to think positive thoughts which i have my good and bad days.
Anyway, thank you, you give all hope and inspiration.
Iam hoping that you will update "The real cure" section and explain to us what you think the root cause of EC is.
I have been watching some of the videos, i still have some questions and was going to sign up to your patreon. Let us know if you ever re up that.
I understand that you have a life.
I will make a small donation now. I'd love to know what you think the root cause is.
Iam currently getting patch testing done and about to see a naturalist.
I am working on the "real cure" section still, and want it to be great when I finally get to post it. It resolves a lot around positive affirmations and "knowing" you will cure yourself. If you have any questions on the videos you can leave them on that page as a comment on this site or on this forum, whichever you like. I'm not doing the Patreon thing anymore, as I want everyone to have the ability to ask questions, and allow anyone to respond to them. So I decided to do the donation only route.
To basically answer your question about the route cause without finishing the page, I believe it's because there is something or many things we are struggling with in life, and it's so difficult for us to face/deal with that our body tries to focus our attention on anything else, and thus it starts drying our lips our, and we focus on that and then the mild relief our minds get from thinking about whatever is paining us, it causes it to do it more...and thus a vicious cycle starts. But I'm going way more in depth when I talk about it. And thank you so much for your donation, I really appreciate it. This site is a lot more expensive to run than the other one, so it means a lot :)
@Daniel Miller Hi. Thanks for the reply.
Iam trying so hard to think positively.
The questions that i had that i dont recall seeing you mention is did aquaphor make the build up on your lips turn to "mush" like did it make the build up soft and mushy and turn white. Looking almost like you had cream or toothpaste or something on your lips?
I guess i dont know how you used aquaphor with so much build up without it having that effect on the crusts?
So you never fond any allergies or triggers or anything hey? You never had any infections?
Iam guessing that you ate very carefully as in cut things up small and drank through a straw?
I guess i never knew how you managed to get the build up so thick. And keep it on? For me the skin often splits or cracks(if i dont moisturise) or turns mushy(when i do moisturise) and comes off. Showering and teeth brushing and everything seems to be problematic.
But I've found that if i dont get lips too wet in shower and if i use an electric tooth brush and dont rinse my mouth, that helps.
I actually recently got the steroid cream that you were using but iam a bit afraid as i have used two different steroid creams in the past. One seemed to do nothing and one seemed to make my lips worse.
You applied the steroid cream both on the crusts and on the raw skin underneath when the crusts came off?
And i think that you said you didn't really have much red inflammation hey? Or much burning?
One last question, did you ever notice your bottom lip throbbing/pulsating? mine dose this. I cant really feel it but i can clearly see it when the raw skin is exposed when i look in the mirror. And when it's covered in crusts it seems to move around?
Anyway, iam going to continue trying to think positive and eat healthy, I've quit booze, get sun. I just dont moisturise constantly like you said due to it making the dead skin so mushy and white.
Iam actually trying manuka honey at the moment.
I'll make another small donation.
Thanks. (sorry post was long).
@shane.king8 Hey Shane! Sorry it took me a while to get back to you.
After I started using the aquaphor a lot (after the 8 months of leaving them alone) yes the buildup was mushy and whitish colored. That was its effect on the crusts, otherwise they would have just been hard, but after the aquaphor sits on them they turn a whiteish color and are mushy. I was just really careful to try to not push the buildup off, but sometimes it would come off. I used a fork and knife to eat as well as a straw to drink with everything. All in all it was very hard to do literally anything, but the main point of it all was to try to not remove the buildup, and if it happened to just not worry so much about it.
I hope the steroid cream is working for you. Yes I put it on wherever it would touch my lips, be it the top of the crust or the regular skin if the crust had fallen off, I didn't actually move the crusts to put it on though. From my experience, I wouldn't worry too much about the other creams not working for you, and I would just see if it works or not, the truth is that you really won't be "set back" much at all if it doesn't work.
I rarely remember having any burning, but my lips were definitely inflamed. They were bigger than normal, and only when I became fully cured would you be able to tell.
I do remember them pulsating from time to time, but not all the time. I wouldn't worry too much about it, in fact I would try my best to stop worrying about your lips completely, which I know is nearly impossible to do, but I truly think that shifting your focus away from them will help them start to heal.
Have you read my real cure section yet? I wasn't sure if you had or not.
Hello Daniel,
thank you very much for rebuilding this site. I do have a question about your treatment.
I have been doing the constant moisture method using aquaphor for about 2 months, but my problem is that my lips never build up any skin and are constantly raw. They tend to hurt when i apply the aquaphor or talk for a longer period of time. Did you experience this as well? As far as I can tell from your videos your lips still built up skin even though you constantly used aquaphor right?
I switched to an organic lip balm for some time. With this my lips did build up skin, which would turn yellow and fall off after about 2 days or so. i stopped doing this after about 3 weeks because i dont feel that it is the right way to go, since my lips feel irritated when i apply the lip balm.
At the moment i am back to doing the constant moisture with aquaphor, but i am also applying apple cider vinegar to my lips 2-3 times a day for about 10min. When i apply the ACV i acutally see some vertical lines, but they disappear rather quickly.
So my question is if you experienced those constantly raw lips as well.
Again, thank you very much trying to help others getting rid of this stuff :)
Hey Tim!
Well, I'm wondering if you are talking all day? The only reason I could see your lips never building skin up would be if you are talking constantly. Have you been to the dermatologist to rule anything else out that would cause your lips to be raw constantly? Does this happen when you don't use Aquaphor? Perhaps you have an allergy to Aquaphor and should use a different product? I didn't experience unless I was at my call center job and talking on the phone constantly, but it was just my inner lips that gave me a lot of problems where they touched. My outer lips didn't hurt.
I see that they did build up skin when you used lip balm, so I'm wondering if you should switch to a product that isn't so hard as a lip balm, but isn't Aquaphor, but is a creamy kind of texture?
I don't know how much I would advice apple cider vinegar on the lips, it seems like it's a pretty harsh substance to use. Maybe try another product, and avoid that for a couple weeks and see what happens, and let me know. :)
@Daniel Miller Hey Daniel,
thank you for your answer. I have been to about 5 dermatologists now and ruled out any allergies or fungal infections. I also got my blood tested about 1 year back, everything is normal.
I am not talking much, and I think I explained myself a bit wrong. I'm not completely sure if my lips dont build up skin when I moisturize them, it's more like the build-up is just so soft and weak that it peels off everytime I take a shower or brush my teeth, no matter how careful I am.
I had the same experience with vaseline and pretty much any moisturizer out there. With organic lip balm or some organic moisturizer my lips build up more skin when doing the constant moisture than when I apply vaseline or aquaphor, which I think is because the lips get more air that way. However the build-up still falls off at least once a day because it is so soft.
One dermatologist I have been to acutally said that too much creme is bad, since my lips need air to breath and fully heal. After 4 months of not putting anything on them the EC spread pretty much like you explained in your video so I stopped that. However, I don't think the constant moisture is the way to go for me, because the build-up peels multiple times a day when doing this.
I got the idea of apple cider vinegar from someone from curezone, who claimed to had gotten cured by using it. I have also seen improvements from this. After all, it works antibacterial, antifungal and therefore anti-inflammatory. It's also known to help with psoriasis.
So at the moment I am still applying the ACV 2-3 times a day to my lips (but just a really small amount) and I put on aquaphor for a few hours a day. That time seems to be enough to have them moisturize, but leave the build-up strong enough to not just fall off instantly.
I am trying not to focus on my lips too much, which actually seems to help a little. I always find that when I go outside or meet people, they actually get more dry and worse because I focus on them even more since I feel embarassed. So I'm trying my best to not focus on my lips, which is really hard to be honest.
As soon as summer starts I will try and get a lot of sun, since it also seems to help.
Hey I have ec 7 months now what have you guys tried cor curing
Daniel I'm struggling with EC from 4years n i want to ask u how often were u taking shower to takeoff the buildup and how do u apply steroid cream when aquaphor is sitting on ur lip from 10 days
I didn't ever take a shower to "takeoff the buildup" I would wait until it came off naturally by itself, and if it came off while I was lighting putting the aquaphor on it, then I wouldn't worry about it...but I was very careful. And you just put the steroid cream over the top, eventually the skin will come off and you can put the steroid cream directly on the lips at that point.
thanks for starting your website up again. do you still have the picture updates from your old blog that you took during your journey?
Unfortunately those are the only things I can't recover from my site deleting itself last time, and I didn't keep the hard drive they were originally on. :( however I took videos with a pretty good camera, so it should be good enough to screen shot, obviously not the best though. Sorry about that!
Hi Daniel,
Thanks so much for taking the time and setting up this website. I think you truly understand what mutual support is all about. I went by the names lipshitz and c.s. on Curezone, and managed the peelinglips Wikispaces site until I hit a paywall.
You were a bright spot of hope for me all these years, and though I still have not fully healed from the condition, I have made considerable progress. I had similar emotional trauma and chapstick/vaseline abuse when this began for me, and finding love in spite of it all, being distracted by bigger concerns, and getting support from others seems to have helped. I understand now this was a critical component of your success. I have also been trying to not forcibly peel and think this is critical too. Perhaps many have not shared your success because of the challenges of recurring secondary infections, allergic sensitivities, chronic stress/depression, overuse of topicals. isolation and lack of sunshine (what I consider to be irritating/exacerbating factors). But stress and forcible peeling (through Martin's polling) seem to be top instigators of the condition, so they must be addressed too.
I want to ramp up the positivity (and sunshine) in 2020 and get us all healed as soon as possible. When I'm fully healed I'd love to interview you (and others who have healed) so we can share our stories together for all those sufferers who will come after us. For now, I have just a couple questions: do you still feel like you need to moisturize all the time, or your lips will feel incredibly dry and tight? And did you ever get tested for Vitamin D levels?
-Colin
Thank you for your message Colin! It's great to "see" you again, ha ha. Yeah I agree there are so many things that can happen to your lips after your body decides it doesn't need to focus on them anymore to distract you...so how you deal with addressing those issues is important too, but also another struggle we have to go through. Thankfully nothing appeared to happen to me during that time, but if it did my body was able to resolve itself.
As far as moisturizing all of the time, it's a VERY interesting question, which literally played a key part to me figuring out that it's the bodies way of distracting itself from whatever a person may be going through. I can literally go for hours and hours where I'm fully immersed in a conversation or movie or something, but the I even think about my lips, they instantly feel dry, but if I pay attention, I know that moments before they didn't "feel" dry. And I have recently started to do tests with myself to wait and not use lip balm when I have that "feeling" and for some time, it can be minutes to an hour or so, I won't think about it or need it again.
It happens all of the time for stressful situations. It's a way my body distracts itself. Say I'm about to meet someone new, or tell someone I know about an idea I have, anytime there is stress involved I always have this inherit "need" to put lip balm on. But as I have become extremely self-aware over the last few months I am discovering more and more what these reasons are. And they fundamentally return to stress-involved situations. (I feel I should add this to my story, as you helped me understand it even more just by asking those questions.
And yes I've been tested many times, and even had very in-depth tests, and everything always comes back normal. There was one test that said my liver functions were a bit higher than normal, but that was just because I was very depressed and going through a really hard time in my life, so I was drinking absurds amount. Amounts that would astonish most people. Which I shouldn't be proud of, but I am more interested in to see just how much my body and mind are able to handle. But I'm now at a point in my life where I've discovered so much, that I never have to (or want) to drink more than a glass or two of wine.
Hope that helps a bit :)
hello, i'm french and i don't understand english, i use google translation. I have a cheilite for 5 years and I would like to know your stages of healing please. I thank you in advance. here's a photo
Hey Daniel. Great idea adding a forum to your website.
I'm currently on week 3 of a diligent aquaphor/ steroid cream regiment, following your guidance closely. I have tried the aquaphor treatment many times in the past with no long term success, however this time is different, mainly because of self isolation due to covid-19 allowing me to take it far more seriously.
I can see skin forming under the aquaphor and can see vertical lines also. Although I'm not risking taking the aquaphor off to have a look at the skin just yet - it is still early days.
I'm using hydrocortisone cream and did have a question with regards to application. Did you wipe off the aquaphor before applying the steroid cream and then reapply the aquaphor? Or did you simply put the steroid cream on top of the aquaphor layers? Did you rub the steroid cream in or just gently apply it on the surface of the lips?
In your videos you also talk about build up and how it slowly reduced over time. Personally I haven't experienced any build up during this treatment, and I am trying to gauge the best time to start decreasing the amount of aquaphor I apply. How were you able to tell your skin was ready to stop applying aquaphor?
CheersD
illan.
Turns out I might be experiencing the build up after all. They are small white dots of buildup that are very well stuck on to the lip. They annoyingly seem to grow and make applying the aquaphor evenly a lot more difficult.
As of typing this message I'm on day 72 of my constant moisture method. Seen very positive results, no build up or peeling or white line for a long time now. However, I'm not fully healed yet,'ve I've basically plataeud and am stuck in this position of not improving but not regressing. I still use aquaphor daily and I've experimented with easing in some natural lip balms but I don't really know how to transition out of aquaphor, or when the right time is.
@Daniel Miller would you mind please elaborating on the end part of your journey, when you felt it was the right time to stop aquaphor and start normal lip balms, what sort of condition your lips were in etc. Thanks.
Daniel have said that first positive results were after 6 months of constant moisture method. And he was cured in about the next 6 months
Hi people,
I just found your website and find it really interesting. I am way too aware of my lips drying out and things have become worse since I am a teacher. Just the tought that my lips could get dry and people could see it makes me feel uncomfortable, so I constantly sip on my water bottle. But when I talk an the phone I could talk for hours without having a sip of water or using any lip balm. It is certainly a reaction to stress und so far I have not find a cure for it.
The only things that actually cures it for a while is surfing. Hours of salt water and sun around my lips just make them perfect... for days and weeks. It is probably the natural form of a steroid cream, so it comes to calming your lips down, allowing your mind to not focus on them for an extended period of time and shifting that focus. Once your focus goes back to your lips, the process starts again.
Hi everybody,
I'd like to share my experience with you all. I've struggled with very dry lips for years so I would apply lip balm on them like 15 times a day. Then I would say a year ago I started biting my lips (I would take off the dead skin that I thought was unesthetical) and it felt like a layer of skin was missing, my lips were raw and burning. In March as quarantine started (I live in France) I decided to stop applying lip balm and stop peeling my lips, in hopes that they would heal and turn back to normal. I started to develop big ugly greenish crusts on my lips. It was horrible, I was terribly self-conscious and it was also very painful as my lips would burn all the time. My doctor prescribed me vaseline but it wasn't very helpful.
I discovered Daniel Miller's YouTube channel and I decided to try the "leave it alone method". Unfortunately the crusts kept falling off, usually when I brushed my teeth, leaving the skin underneath raw and swollen.
Then I discovered this thread: https://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=2278625.
A Week ago I took off all the crusts off my lips and started applying aquaphor every half hour, and I gently exfoliate my lips after I brush my teeth. It's only been a Week but I'm already very satisfied with the results, the crusts are not coming back, my lips don't burn anymore, and I'm starting to see vertical lines again. It looks like a thin layer of skin has come back. I started decreasing the aquaphor, I only apply it 4 times a day now. I have some before and after pictures if some of you are interested.
Just a little precision: I know Daniel also did this constant moisture method except (if I understand correctly) he left the crusts on his lips during the process and applied aquaphor on top of them.
Hi. A French compatriot here. Thank you for sharing your experience with this nightmare. Would you mind please sharing your before and after pictures? Thanks again
Hi everyone,
I just wanted to make an update on a treatment that has been working for me. I've had EC for approximately 7 years, I am now 20 years old and it has been a nightmare. But I finally think I understand what has been wrong with me. I think that I've had an chronic allergic reaction to something, whether it's something I eat or something that I put on my lips. I've stopped anything from touching my lips, food, water, lip balm, even napkins. I suspect that some chemical or preservative in the napkins caused me to react how I have, I never stopped using paper napkins in the last 7 years so I think that was the real trigger. The only thing I use is Aloe vera straight from the plant before and after eating to create a barrier and clean my lips off. I've done this for 2 months and my lips have never felt better. They have some lines, but not a ton. They are more flexible than they have ever been. They don't peel nearly as much as before. I am excited to see how much better they will get.
I've tried everything under the sun. Nothing has worked. Modern medicine, homeopathy, eastern medicine, diets, creams, ointments, everything. The only thing that has moderately worked was an extremely healthy diet (unsustainable) and a topical steroid (the steroid made my lips worse after I got off them). This is the only thing that I have seen such progress. I am also exercising a good amount and eating relatively healthy, and while I'm sure it helps, I don't think it's why I am improving so rapidly.
I hope this might help some of you that are suffering. I have suffered for a long time, and to finally feel hope that I might one day be free of this illness, it gives me such drive to live my best life. Lmk if anyone has any questions or just wants someone to talk to. We can all get through this, good luck everyone!
-Molly
Hello! I have EC from 2017. From December 2019 I tried ‘leave alone method’ without biting/touching my lips. But now I’dont know if it’s working or not. So yesterday I started ‘constant moisture method’ with Aquaphor. Also long time ago I overused steroid cream (Elocom) because my allergy, so I’ll use only Aquaphor.
I plan to cure in 12 month, by July 2021. Wish me good luck...
Now I am on day 110 of my way to normal life. I’m applying Aquaphor every time. It has left 72 days to point where I should see first results (6 month as Daniel said). And after that it will be other 183 days to normal condition.
Hi Daniel,
@Daniel Miller when did you stoped using Aquaphor? I'm on that Point where my lips doesn't peel anymore and I got my vertikal lines back. But it still feels sensitive like a layer of skin is missing. I only getting a dead layer of skin at the border of the mucosa. If I stop using aquaphor my lips drying out and I getting bigger vertikal lines, then I put aquaphor back on it and they getting wet and elastic again without peeling anything off.
If I using flash light from my phone and looking through my skin, I can see Micro cracks is that normal ?
Thanks.
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Hello Daniel,
I have a quick question about the constant moisture method.
I remember you said that you had very dry skin around your lips/ mouth after that period where you kept them dry all the time.
When you started the constant moisture method, did you also apply the aquaphor on the dry skin around your mouth, or just on your lips?
I am doing the constant moisture right now and I have found that when I don't apply the aquaphor around my lips, my lips don't burn as much as they do when I put the aquaphor around them. However, as soon as I stop applying aquaphor around my lips, that skin gets really dry again.
Thank you very much for your help.
PS: If anybody that had success with this method reads this, feel free to answer as well :)
Hello, I’m following that method for 144 days, and I don’t have dry skin around lips. Rather the opposite because Aquaphor softens from body heat and sort of spreads on the chin etc. So I have to wipe it off the chin with paper towel. Maybe you have some cracking in the corners? I have that and I don’t think it’s a problem, it easily disappears when you are not applying too much on the regular skin in the corners (but applying on the lips in that area).