What to eat for chapped lips in winter

　　The key to treating chapped lips and strengthening the spleen is

　　Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the spleen opens into the mouth and its essence is in the lips. This means that the color of lips is closely related to the spleen. Strengthening the spleen is the key to preventing dry and cracked lips. The climate is dry in autumn. If you eat too few fresh vegetables and the body's vitamin intake is insufficient, the resistance of the epidermal cells of the lip mucosa will be reduced, which will cause dryness and cracking.

　　Don’t panic if your lips become chapped. You must first get rid of your bad lip licking habit. Secondly, you should drink more water and eat more fresh vegetables, pears, water chestnuts and other foods that can promote body fluids and nourish yin.

　　Yam is the first choice for strengthening the spleen

　　Yams are the first choice for strengthening the spleen and are a good dietary supplement for nourishing the spleen and stomach. They can be steamed, stewed or stir-fried in many ways. Fresh vegetables are rich in vitamins and can also supplement the vitamins lacking in chapped lips. Soybean sprouts, rapeseed, Chinese cabbage and white radish are all good choices. There is also a stew suitable for improving chapped lips: Tremella stewed with rock sugar. Use 50 grams of Tremella fungus and 10 red dates to stew rock sugar and drink it three times a day.

　　Let me introduce to you a basic traditional Chinese medicine prescription that can be used both as medicine and food, which is very effective in treating chapped lips. The specific preparation method is: 15 grams of asparagus, 15 grams of Ophiopogon japonicus (both for one-time use), plus 10 grams of white sugar, put them together, cover with 300 ml of hot water and soak for 10 to 15 minutes before drinking. Adults should drink it in one sitting, and children should drink it in half, once a day. Taking it continuously for 3 to 5 days can have good effects.

　　Daily conditioning to prevent dryness and cracking

　　In addition, do not tear the lips that are already chapped and flaky. If the peeling is severe, you can apply lip balm on your lips and cover them with plastic wrap, then gently rub them with a hot towel to allow your lips to fully absorb moisture and oil, making your lips moist and red. After the beginning of autumn, you can apply lip balm on your lips every day to prevent chapped lips.

　　In addition, in autumn and winter, lips are prone to scabbing, which is also related to the bad habit of lip licking. Since saliva contains a variety of digestive enzymes, after the saliva on the lips evaporates, these large protein molecules will remain on the lips and form scabs together with the cells shed from the lips. Since the tissue underneath the scab is incomplete, if it is forcibly removed, it will cause more local exudation, thus forming more scabs.