I've been cured for about 3 and half years now, because of a very simple method. Here's my story.

I'm 24 and I've always had chapped lips through out my entire life. This was mainly due to my habit of picking dead skin off my lips and using lip balm seldomly . I really didn't care, though, because my lips were never chapped *that badly*. But during my second year of college my lips were chapped more than normal. This was likely due to the following: poor diet, bad hygiene, and stress. I also picked my lips excessively. This as you all know made it even worse. Much, much worse. I bought the generic lip balm called ChapStick, because I've tried it before and my lips would improve. This time it didn't. My lips were still very chapped and flaky. I decided I needed something stronger, so I bought Blistex Medicated Lip Balm. This didn't work either. I was very conscious at this point of how my lips looked. I began to pick every piece of dead skin off my lips so it would look 'normal' albeit very raw. At least I could be in public without my lips covered in dead skin. But after I picked all the flakes off my lips, they would come back hours later. My lips was in a vicious peeling cycle.

I went on the internet to search for reviews of lip balm, hoping I could find one that would cure this. One of the lip balms I tried was Burt's Bee Lip Balm because of all the praise it received. Bad move. I believe I was allergic to this because my lips would burn and the tiny flakes on my lips tripled. I also developed these little cuts on the side of my lips which I later discovered to be angular cheilitis. It was hard to even open my mouth at this point. I started skipping classes and rarely went outside, because I was so embarrassed of how my lips looked. If you go to http://www.angularcheilitisweb.com
my lips looked similar to the picture on the front page, but mine were even flakier and more cracked (it seems I had both angular and exfoliativa cheilitis). I eventually found this forum as I researched more about cheilitis. I took advice from the topics and tried many different type of lip balms and home made remedies as suggested. I stopped picking my lips. I made sure not to lick my lips at all, I used straws to drink. I left my lips alone for weeks without any balm. I tried diets suggested by forum members. I even used that treatment involving dish soap. Well, none of these methods worked or helped at all. Some of the methods even made it worse as when I tried exfoliating my lips with a toothbrush. My lips never improved and I was thinking how I would have this condition for my whole life and I became extremely depressed.

Six months with my cheilitis, I read a topic on here where a member explained that licking his/her lips made it better because saliva itself has healing properties, and normal people lick their lips. I thought this made sense but the problem would be that the saliva would eventually dry the lips out, making it worse. Now, as I said before, I was trying out a lot of lip balms. I was currently using Palmer's Cocoa Butter Moisturizing Lip Balm. I liked this because it was natural. I was using it for maybe a couple of days, and my lips seemed to improved although only slightly. On the 3rd day that I was using it, I thought about that topic on saliva. This time I licked my lips and then applied the balm; this way the spit wouldn't dry out on its own. The first time I did this my lips noticeably improved. My lips were much less flakier. However, as short as 10 minutes later my lips reverted back to its flaky cheilitis appearance. So I licked my lips and applied the balm again. And my lips looked fine again, even healthier than before. 10 minutes later the flakes came back and once again I licked my lips and applied the cocoa butter. I would end up doing this dozens (I think I did it over 30-40 times my first day) of time throughout the day. My lips continued to improved each time I applied it. Eventually my lips didn't even have any dead skin after I applied it. I also noticed the period where my lips looked fine became increasingly longer. Days later I only had to apply it twice an hour. Soon it became once an hour, and then once every 2 hours, then 4 hours... you get the idea. Within that month I only had to apply it it a couple times a day, and my lips were rarely chapped. In fact my lips looked perfectly healthy throughout the day. The cuts on the side of my lips also disappeared. My cheilitis was gone. Now, I can go weeks, even months with out applying lip balm. If it did become chapped, (either because I pick my lips out of old habit or I hadn't used the balm in a while) it was only lightly chapped, that is to say it wasn't the tiny specks of dead skins and bloody cracked lips that I previously had, it was just a few dead skin here and there. But then all I needed to do was lick my lips, apply cocoa butter, and my lips would be fine.

Now, I know some of you are skeptical when some be all and end all cure is posted. As you should be. I remember seeing members post remedies that worked only to come back weeks later with their cheilitis returned. I post this method because I haven't seen it on this forum or else where on the internet, and it doesn't involve surgery, or some expensive cream, or complicated diet. It's simple and cheap. I can't promise it will work for you though. I really don't know. But I am confident it worked for me. It's been 3 and a half years since my lips have been cured. And ever since I've used this saliva/cocoa butter method, my lips have been healthy throughout those years with absolutely no sign of cheilitis.

edit: I searched around this forum and someone else, jp20, has also been cured by this method - //www.curezone.org/forums/am.asp?i=1605365