Home Skin CareSkin pigmentation Purple lips: Causes, treatment, and prevention

Purple lips: Causes, treatment, and prevention

by Alivia Nyhan
Published: Last Updated on

The appearance of our lips can indicate many aspects of our health; for this reason, any change in their color or shape can be considered a sign that our body is undergoing some change or disease. The lips should appear light red and slightly moistened and shiny; however, on some occasions, they can become dry or cracked, pale, and even purple.

You have noticed that your skin looks much paler when the temperature drops and your lips change color, turning purple or bluish. The change in skin tone is due to cyanosis, a purple tint of any body part due to a lack of oxygen in the blood. However, other conditions consider an alteration in the color of the lips among their symptoms. If you want to know the origin of this condition, we invite you to continue reading this FastlyHealarticle about purple lips: causes.

Cold purple lips

You have probably noticed that the skin looks much paler when the temperatures are lower and the lips are purple. Spending a long time in the cold without suitable clothing can cause symptoms of hypothermia. This condition occurs when the body temperature drops to 35 ° C and often causes confusion, drowsiness, weakness, loss of coordination, tremors, slow breathing, and shortness of breath. Of oxygen and purple lips. It is essential to take care of a person with hypothermia in time by covering them with warm blankets, keeping them indoors, and removing all wet clothing they may have on them.

Purple lips from altitude sickness

When we visit a city that is much higher than the sea level than the area where we live, we risk that our body will be the victim of mountain sickness or altitude sickness. This is one of the most common causes of a lack of oxygen in the blood or cyanosis, leading to purple lips, dizziness, lack of oxygen, and even death. This condition can be avoided if the person wraps up properly and progressively ascends. Descending from the heights, receiving medications, and administering oxygen are recommendations to prevent a significant complications.

Purple lips from Raynaud’s phenomenon

Raynaud’s syndrome occurs when cold temperatures or strong emotions cause vascular spasms that block blood circulation to the extremities, ears, and nose. The leading causes of this phenomenon are diseases of the arteries, arthritis, autoimmune conditions, smoking, and cold burns. The blockage of circulation causes a lack of oxygen that causes purple lips that will turn red again once the condition is treated.

Bruised lips from asthma

Asthma is a disease that causes the airways to become inflamed and narrow, causing shortness of breath and chest pain. During an asthma attack, the skin will appear paler, and the lips purple due to the lack of oxygen that the person is presenting. It is a vital sign of cyanosis that indicates the severity of the health condition, so it is essential to adduce the doctor immediately.

An asthma attack can be triggered by stress, smoking, weather changes, mold, pollen, dust mites, animals, and respiratory infections such as bronchitis. Once the person begins to treat the disease with medications that expand the airways, symptoms improve, and the lips return to their standard color.

Purple lips in children: croup

It is a widespread childhood illness caused by a virus such as a parainfluenza that affects the respiratory system, causing a very characteristic cough that sounds similar to the barking of a seal. When a child with croup has a purple color on the lips, the disease is considered in its serious phase. It needs immediate medical attention to compensate for the lack of oxygen caused by the difficulty in breathing. This disease usually lasts up to a week, and the cough it causes is most acute at night.

Bruised lips from COPD

COPD obstructs air into the lungs, and its leading cause is smoking; in fact, the more a person smokes, the greater the risk of developing this condition. The lungs of a person with COPD cannot exhale all the air they contain, which affects proper breathing and decreases the amount of oxygen in the body. When the lack of oxygen is severe, the lips change color and adopt a purple or bluish tone. COPD has no cure, so treatment consists of alleviating its symptoms and providing a better quality of life for those who suffer.

Purple spots on the lips: other causes

Beyond the causes of bruised lips that we have already explained, there are other diseases, some serious, that can also manifest themselves with a change in the color of the lips:

  • Pulmonary embolism: It occurs when an artery is blocked, and blood flow decreases, considerably compromising the amount of oxygen in the body and causing cyanosis.
  • Heart problems: Any congenital heart defect, especially cyanotic defects, can compromise the oxygenation of the body and cause purple lips.
  • Methemoglobinemia – occurs when the body produces too much of a form of hemoglobin, which can cause cyanosis.

How to remove purple lips

In the presence of purple lips, especially if we cannot give a plausible explanation such as cold, it is necessary to go to the doctor as quickly as possible. There, they will be able to explore you and make a clear and precise diagnosis and initial treatment if necessary.

As we have seen throughout the article, certain causes of purple lips can be very serious, even fatal. In the face of these symptoms, it is better to recover in health and go to the doctor as soon as possible in case a quick treatment is needed.

On the other hand, if you are confident that the cause of purple lips is Raynaud’s syndrome or a result of low temperatures, the solution to remove purple lips is to keep warm and retain body heat. Special attention must be paid to the most vulnerable areas: covering the head, wearing gloves, and a scarf to cover the neck, nose, and lips.

This article is merely informative, at FastlyHeal .com we do not have the power to prescribe medical treatments or make any diagnosis. We invite you to see a doctor in the case of presenting any condition or discomfort.

If you want to read more articles similar to Purple lips: causes, we recommend that you enter our Skin, hair and nails category .

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