Thursday, September 13, 2012

Zinc and Cracked, Chapped, Bleeding Lips



For the past few months I had been having some mystery symptoms - weakness, dizziness and constant fatigue, I was craving chicken like you wouldn't believe! I thought I had low iron but a barrage of blood test for everything from kidney function to thyroid function to a total blood count showed this to be untrue, everything was within the normal range. The doctor wanted to send me for all sorts of tests, however I was sure I was simply missing something in my diet. After a lot of research I decided to try some magnesium supplements. Instead I came across Bio-Zinc which had more magnesium in it as the bottle of straight magnesium supplements.

Three weeks ago I started taking Blackmores Bio-Zinc which contains:
Zinc: 125mg
Magnesium Phosphate: 122mg
Manganese: 20mg
Vitamin A: 2500IU
Vitamin B6: 50mg

In the first week I didn't really notice a difference, but the second week something amazing happened. My skin began to glow! Now, I have always had very dull, thin, dry skin, and in just a couple of weeks the vitamins had turned all of this around for me. Even my nail cuticles were smooth, this has never been the case for my fingers. I have always had hang nails and peeling skin around my nails, but this wasn't the best part. I have had very dry lips my WHOLE life, one of my first memories was as a three year old. My lips had cracked and I was screaming because I had laughed, all of a sudden they were bleeding and sore. This was the start of a never ending battle with dry, chapped lips. I had to have paw paw ointment or lip balms wherever I went and although they helped they never seemed to completely alleviate the problems I was having with my lips, they would still be scaly and as a result I had developed a severe lip picking habit.

As a teenager I went to a doctor to see if he knew what could possibly be happening and what could be done to make this terrible affliction disappear. He drew a blank and told me to simply continue with the lip balms. I couldn't wear lipsticks as it would come off the scales within five minutes, seep into the cracks, look uneven and just plain revolting. I became sensitive to lipsticks after while and I suspect this was because the chemicals in lipstick broke into the skin barrier resulting in the sensitivity. My lips would develop painful ulcers the day after I applied the lipstick and they would stay for up to two weeks.

Three weeks ago I had cracked lips, as of a week ago they have become as smooth as a babies bottom, it is a miracle! I still have scarring but they feel so good now, I have no more scaling to pick at which is strange for me as this had become a life long habit. The last week I have run my thumb nail across my bottom lip but there has been nothing there to grab at.

I still have the mystery symptoms but I am now trialing Vitamin D3. I will keep you posted on how the Vitamin D3 trial goes. So far I have been taking the vitamin D3 supplements for 2 days and my strength is already coming back.