Weight & Wellness

Your lips don’t contain oil glands, so it’s easy for them to become cracked and sore during the winter months, explains Bruce Robinson, M.D., assistant clinical instructor at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Use a plain petroleum-based product such as Vaseline Petroleum Jelly Lip Therapy ($2, drugstores) to keep your lips moist. Avoid wax-based products, which actually can pull off the thin, damaged outer layer of skin, and flavored products, which tempt you to lick your chops and dry them out even more.



When you’re outdoors, wear a scarf and keep lips shielded from the wind and cold. If there’s no improvement after a week, see your doctor. Chapped, cracked lips can be due to something minor, such as an allergy to your toothpaste, or a sign of a more serious health problem, such as lupus.