u/Justhere20233202

Does anyone else’s white line get thin when you don’t talk? Mine gets thick if I talk but when I don’t it thins but hard to tell if it’s recovering or not. Also, when I’m in my car with the air conditioning on it thins out my white linen to where some times it’s almost clear but this is only when I’m in the car when it looks almost clear with air blowing towards my face. I have been taking b12 and b9 cause I’m deficient in these.

I bought groceries and was using ChatGPT and also reading the labels to make sure what I was buying didn’t have soy, soybean, so lecithin, or no derivided ingredients from soy/soybean.

When I got home I got an add pop to try an app called Fig to scan items based on diet. Fig is saying that all the stuff i bought has soy in them or derived from animals that consume soy but the ingredient list didn’t mention any of this and ChatGPT didn’t either.

Anyone have insight into this and any recommendations for where to buy soy/soybean food?

(For context so my EC people don’t get confused like wtf is he talking about dermatitis, this long post if you read below is a reply to someone in the Eczema subreddit that I replied to this morning 7/26/2026) about my journey and experience with my EC and also how if I never did biopsy I would have never known I had spongiotic dermatitis for my bottom lip and discovered I had soybean allergy which at the time I only Had EC on bottom lip the last few years but I got stuck on my top lip and my plan moving forward cause I think how I got hit on 7/19/2026 triggered EC for my top lip now and I never addressed my diet and soybean allergy I was diagnosed from years ago because I was content with my bottom Lip and how I managed it and cause this Shit was very demoralizing for me back then that when I got to a point where I could manage my bottom lip it didn’t look like I had EC anymore for bottom lip even tho I never fully healed from it. I probably should have kept using UVB light longer or committed to no soybean in my diet

I have been dealing with something called exfoliative Cheilitis on my bottom lip for a few years now. I saw 2-3 different dermatologist when I first realized I had this condition. They weren’t that helpful. The only thing one of the dermatologist suggested I should do was to do a biopsy and I was against doing it for months after I was told back in 2024 i believe. Few months later I did just decide to go ahead and do it just to rule out the possibility of anything underlying not knowing for sure if they would find anything or not and have to potentially deal with more damage to my lip that already looked bad.

When I got the results my dermatologist sent them to me and said the biopsy found spongiotic dermatitis on the sample they took of my bottom lip. She told me I should go get an allergy test to see if I’m allergic to something that is triggering the spongiotic dermatitis on my bottom lip that they did biopsy for. I went and got an allergy test, I have never been allergic to anything throughout my life. She explained that people can develop allergies throughout your life even if you weren’t born with any. So I got allergy test and it said I was allergic to soybean (which is in a lot of food and even in my vitamin D supplement that I have to take because I’ve had another condition back in 2020 called TE that caused half of my hair to stop grown cause it was in the telogen phase and was told to take vitamin D and not to stress), I was also allergic to dogs and cats and dust mites.

Out of the allergens I was informed that I have I knew right away that soybean is probably the main cause of my spongiotic dermatitis/ exfoliative Cheilitis
I did not cut out food that contained soybean out of my diet because I hate cooking
But I did apply squalane oil on my lips and used a UVB light over my lip because I saw a guy on YouTube named Jon M said he used it for Exfoliative Cheilitis, he didn’t mention him ever getting a biopsy I don’t recall I think he mentioned he tried it because he saw comments or did research and saw people with psoriasis used it to help their psoriasis and but the YouTube account for Jon M is no longer available I’m guessing he deleted his content or YouTube account but it was well documented with multiple videos of him using products or methods and then trying UVB light therapy which helped his Exfoliative Cheilitis heal. He did reference a guy who is still on YouTube named Daniel Miller who mentioned that the sun did help his Exfoliative Cheilitis along with doing constant moisture for his lips.

The UVB therapy did help me for a few months and then got stagnant and I kind of became more accepting of it and I also noticed when I drunk more water it slowed how fast my flakes would form on my bottom lip and the white line I would get of the skin macerating.

I got hit on my upper lip playing basketball on 7/19/2026 and it caused part of my inner TOP lip to rip off from how I was elbowed into my lip
Yes this was from trauma , and I can understand if some of you have never even heard of exfoliative chelitis but I think it triggered it for my top lip now cause it’s doing the same thing my bottom
Lip use to do. Also I did use to pick my bottom lip few years ago and was eating unhealthy. So now I’m guessing that since I got struck in the mouth my skin in my inner lip is trying to heal but my gut is full of processed foods and soybean and may be causing this shredding cycle due to spongiotic dermatitis

I think it’s reasonable to assume if I had got biopsy for my bottom lip that showed I have spongiotic dermatitis for the sample they took of bottom lip that my now injured and macerating top lip is struggling to heal due to my gut due to allergy to soybean

I know this was a long comment but I just wanted to provide insight of my situation and that I have actually gotten a biopsy few years ago even though I was highly against it. Especially since it would be noticeable to people along with all the flaking I had. I’m not suggesting everyone should get a biopsy but if I never did i probably would have been trying more medicated creams and what not which I was against also the only thing I tried briefly before the UVB light therapy was hydrocortisone the derm prescribed but I didn’t like it cause it was just a bandaid and false illusion of being healed. I tired hydrocortisone months before I did my biopsy for bottom lip in 2024. Then did research later after biopsy and saw Jon M’s videos on YouTube of UVB light for exfoliative Cheilitis and researching spongiotic dermatitis can be treated with UVB light. My derm didn’t suggest me to use UVB light due to it could be a strong wavelength. I just bought my own, and decided I would rather try a light someone with EC healed himself with and research showing that it has been an option to treat for spongiotic dermatitis instead of going trial and error of using steroids on my bottom lip and other medications on my bottom lip.

I plan to just commit to changing my diet and cook all my food that doesn’t contain soy or soybean oil. Make sure I get a vitamin d supplement that doesn’t have soybean. I may start UVB again in a week or so. I just want to see if me changing my diet will show improvement. Like I said before to me drinking more water for some reason has slowed the build up for my bottom lip and was content with how my bottom lip was and had moved on with my life . But since being struck in the mouth I get a white line that turns to buildup if I leave it on my top lip. But when I drunk 8-10 bottles of water yesterday my skin was not showing the macerated white line so I will also cutting out soybean completely to see if this actually helps resolve the inflammation and flaking/build up completely since I was tested and have SD and allergic to soybean.

But again I would have not known I had spongiotic dermatitis had I not gotten a biopsy for my bottom lip and then got an allergy test that stated I’m allergic to soybean and I was eating fast food damn near everyday for 4-5 years I was in college and til now. But I plan to cut out soybean starting today and observe my lips to see if the buildup/ flakes take longer to build up or if they stop. I doubt they just fully stop but If slower that could still mean changing my diet was the key for real. But if it doesn’t change I will start using the UVB light for my lips again since I know it did thin my bottom lip buildup before.

I’ll make a post of the buildup I had on bottom lip starting UVB with the thick build up to month or two after using UVB so people can see it did somewhat help me back then. I just don’t wanna do to many things at once to know or not know which variable is helping the most and I never fully cut out soybean before so I will cut soybean out first for a week or two before to see before doing UVB again.

My EC has been just on my bottom lip the past few years. On Sunday I got hit in the mouth playing basketball and it caused my skin under my top lip to rub off. I removed the hanging skin because it was just hanging and moving whenever I talk. Now I have a white line and it’s still raw area on the right side of top lip in my mouth. It does not have flakes on my entire top lip, the white line is just where my lips meet.

Is this EC for my top lip now? I can’t go thru this shit again

I haven’t healed my bottom lip but I have managed to drink more water and it helps to an extent and cut fast food since I have a soybean allergy. So my bottom lip has been Manageable. But now i literally got hit in the mouth and and my top lip looks like I’m cooked with this shit again