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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: Christian Sager, and this is brain stuff. I'm going to

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Speaker 1: go out on a limb here and say you've probably

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Speaker 1: had chapped lips at some point. Well, here's what's happening.

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Speaker 1: Your lips are pretty delicate things, and the one at

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Speaker 1: the top that's your labium supriyus oris, and the one

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Speaker 1: on the bottom is your labi um infurious oris. Collectively,

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Speaker 1: they form an enormously sensitive, incredibly flexible part of your body,

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Speaker 1: and it's tough to picture life without them. However, they

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Speaker 1: also have some vulnerabilities. For instance, the skin of your

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Speaker 1: lips is different from the rest of your face. Let's

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Speaker 1: take a closer look. The outer layer is called the epidermist,

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Speaker 1: and it has a protective covering called the straight um corneum.

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Speaker 1: Underneath your epidermis is another layer of skin, the dermist.

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Speaker 1: Like the rest of your skin, your lips have all

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Speaker 1: three of these layers. The difference is that the straight

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Speaker 1: um corneum on your lips is way thinner than it

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Speaker 1: is anywhere else on your body. In fact, it's part

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Speaker 1: of the reason people's lips have that alluring red or

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Speaker 1: pink pigment. It comes from underlying blood vessels, red colored

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Speaker 1: blood filled capillaries close to the thin skin on your lips. Next,

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Speaker 1: your lips also don't have the oil and sweat glands

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Speaker 1: that protect other parts of your body. They're only source

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Speaker 1: of moisture is your saliva, and that's why they can

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Speaker 1: easily become dry and chapped, and that's usually the culprit

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Speaker 1: here hydration. We often experience chapped lips and cold weather,

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Speaker 1: not because our lips are allergic to winter or anything,

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Speaker 1: but instead because the outside air tends to be dryer,

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Speaker 1: and this also dries out the lips, and this drying

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Speaker 1: out is the leading cause of chapped lips, also known

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Speaker 1: as common kighlitis. Luckily, there are some pretty simple ways

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Speaker 1: to prevent this. First, and no matter what the cause

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Speaker 1: of your chapped lips might be, stop licking them. I know,

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Speaker 1: I know, it can be a difficult habit to break,

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Speaker 1: but licking your lips can contribute significantly to dry cracked skin.

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Speaker 1: The saliva evaporates quickly, taking with it any moisture that

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Speaker 1: was already on your lips and leaving them even drier,

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Speaker 1: especially in winter air. And speaking of amazing segues. Let's

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Speaker 1: tackle weather related chapping. If you have very dry air

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Speaker 1: in your house, consider investing in a humidifier. If you're outside,

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Speaker 1: then protect your lips with a product that contains beeswax

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Speaker 1: or petrolatum, which will help maintain your lips hydration. If

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Speaker 1: you plan to be out in the sun for a while,

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Speaker 1: help prevent dryness by using a sunscreen on your lips

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Speaker 1: as well. A lip bomb with SPF in it could

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Speaker 1: help address both of these issues at once. And as always,

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Speaker 1: drinking plenty of fluids is a great move for your

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Speaker 1: entire body, not just your lips. And that's it, well,

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Speaker 1: well almost. We didn't talk about the multiple other causes

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Speaker 1: of chapped lips or lip bomb addiction, or whether some

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Speaker 1: of the ingredients and those things actually caused chapped lips,

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Speaker 1: which is an interesting little conspiracy theory. Check out the

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Speaker 1: brainstaff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.