Lips swollen, inflamed with small blisters

[Rock_Cogar]

Hello !

Six months ago my wife started having episodes of Lips that were swollen, inflamed with very small blisters.  In a topical sense both organic Shea butter and cortisone cremes do help.

Current theory is that this is triggered by some sort of food additive allergy or intolerance with the prime candidate being free glutamates such as Monosodium glutamate, Yeast extract or  Hydrolyzed protein (or perhaps dozens of other names on ingredient labels).

Problems in establishing an exact cause and effect are (1) unpredictable lag times between ingestion of the suspect food and (2) her lips during an episode become so very sensitive that most any free glutamates such as those found in low concentrations in natural fruits and vegetables seem to propagate the symptoms.

Any Ideas ?


Thanks so much !
Rock.
Colorado, USA.

[jazzyk318]

I began experiencing dry, swollen lips recently.  It would start with a tingling feeling around the perimeter of my lips.  Then would progress to severe cracking and tiny blisters along the perimeter of my lips.  This would last for about a week and was very painful.  The only remedy was to slather my lips with petroleum jelly all day until the condition subsided.

A friend of mine who suffers from cold sores suggested Lysine, which is an amino acid.  You can buy it at Whole Foods.  After 1 day of taking Lysine capsules, my lips felt substantially better.  The swelling, cracking, and blisters all subsided.  I will definitely be taking this if I have future episodes.  In the meantime, I'm keeping a food log to determine what foods may be causing this allergic reaction.

[Horrorfan37]

Thank god I'm not the only one!  Originally I was misdiagnosed as having cold sores, which meant about three weeks of having top and bottom lips covered in super dry, blister crusted lips and me not putting any chapstick on my poor lips and taking antivirals. Finally I went to a dermatologist who told me I definitely did not have cold sores. Got diagnosed as having perioral dermatitis because by this point I had a full on rash/pimples around my mouth and chin area as well as my lips.  Was prescribed an antibiotic and diflucan. Strangely the only thing that seemed to take the sting away was diflucan. Although I do not have thrush. After countless follow ups where we were throwing anything at the wall hoping it would stick, a second opinion that told me I had rosacea and nothing was wrong with my lips as well as a skin allergy test that showed I was allergic to nickel and disperse blue 106 dye I am at a total loss. I've kept a food diary, but Im still clueless. At this point I think my lips are so raw anything with any seasoning irritates them. I tried changing toothpastes but the non flouride/no sulfate Jason's natural toothpaste stings.  Baking soda seems to **** off my mouth as well.  I have made an appt with an allergist next week and I'm hoping to pin down what the heck is going on. I miss my lips. Im currently in the middle of a bad episode, lips are red, swollen and covered in tiny blisters. I'm having reconstructive surgery in a few weeks and also trying to keep my acid/non acid reflux in check... I'm thinking I've had enough character building experiences and I'm ready to not have botox blister lips any more.

[Simallen66]

Rosacea is linked to Demodex skin mites, they mainly cause pustules around the mouth and chin. I have similar lip problems and wonder if Demodex are also the problem.

[skizmo646]

I have this same thing. I think that mine is from an allergic reaction to fruit. There is a group of fruits that people with sensitivities to latex are often allergic to. It includes kiwi, banana, pomegranate, pineapple, and even potatoes. I get the reaction mostly from kiwi and bananas. I have had this same reaction with the horrible blisters covering my lips a few times. It usually isn't this bad though. I have had these blisters for 6 days now and they are just getting worse. I just have to stay away from them as much as I can because this isn't worth it!

[AGG32]

I'm in my 40s and started having swollen lips around May 2012 followed by chapped and cracked lips.  All I could do was apply petroleum jelly.  When it got bad I used Hydrocortisone Butarate and that helped.  This went on for 6 months with the only relief being the 3 weeks we were on vacation and camping most of the time (not a lot of fancy cooking).  In Nov 2012, I developed small blisters around the perimeter of my mouth that popped then crusted.  I started a food journal and suspected avocado or garlic.  The blistering happened again one day but I wasn't sure until I ate something that had a lot of garlic and no avocados that day.  Benadryl helps but makes me sleepy.  I try to be careful but have incidents of blistering when I didn't ask about the ingredients.  Concentrated  amounts of garlic or raw garlic causes the blistering but I have a continuous redness around my mouth from some exposure.  I love garlic and am okay with small amounts.  I'm sad that this has happened and hope it will go away some day.  For now, it's the new normal.

[Shann25]

Thanks for posting this. I've been going thru the same thing for months and I just think I pinpointed it to be an allergy to any kind of pepper. I'm going to go pepper-free and see if this will stop the reactions.

[Mrssizemore01]

I too think mine is MSG! And my son also gets this and he is 9 - we both ate  Chinese Food at the same time and had a bottom lip outbreak...mine was so bad I couldn't go out of the house for a week I was so ashamed and it hurts! My glands under my chin swell some and the nerves down my chin hurt.....this has happen to me like 1 time every 10 years...at least to this magnatude. We always get them off and all all year....I found the term Meniere's Disease that seems to be real close to what I have....search it...