Chapped lips. Cold ears. Dry skin.

With December knocking at our front doors, in comes the cold winter weather right along with it. The frigid temperatures introduce painful additions to our lives, including things like chapped lips.

These cold symptoms could include the following, runny nose, cough, chapped lips, sore throat, dry skin, chills, fever, muscle pain, or watery eyes. According to nurse Joanne Dorsey, a runny nose, cough, mild headache, sore throat, and a fever are the most common cold symptoms.

When you have several of these symptoms, it is a cold. Mayo Clinic states that staying hydrated, getting rest, soothing a sore throat, combatting stuffiness, and relieving pain is prone to helping the recovery process. But how exactly does one do some of these? To soothe a sore throat, gargling salt water is the best way to do it. Over the counter remedies like Tylenol and nasal drips can help with muscle pain and stuffy noses. Dorsey also states that cough drops can help soothe the pain.

Sophomore Julia Blondell states that she uses a humidifier, cough drops, drinks warm green or lemon tea, and gets fluid as she rests. Dorsey also mentioned that “when a student goes home, I suggest trying a humidifier and a decongestant because we don’t have them at school.”

For the other cold like symptoms including chapped lips and dry skin, other remedies are used. Dry skin can be caused by many factors like cold temperatures and low moisture in the air according to Moira Lawler of Everyday Health. Some other causes could be, certain soaps, acne medications, long hot showers, and certain medical conditions.

To help dry skin there are several remedies that can be used such as using skin moisturizers, limiting water exposure, staying covered in cold weather, and wearing rubber gloves. According to Mayo Clinic, “Dry skin isn’t usually serious, but see your doctor if your skin doesn’t improve in spite of your best efforts, dry skin is accompanied by redness, dryness and itching interfere with sleeping, you have open sores or infections from scratching, or you have large areas of scaling or peeling skin.”

Specifically, for your face, there are some great moisturizers to use during this Winter season. According to a Rank and Style reporter, Olay Regenerist Cream, Tatcha The Dewy Skin Cream, Fresh Rose Deep Hydration Face Cream, and Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost Water Gel are the top 3 best creams to use for dry skin.

Joshua Zeichner, MD, director of cosmetic and clinical research in the dermatology department at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City says that chapped lips are irritated, dry, and peeling lips caused by disruption of the outer skin layer and inflammation. Wetness and weather are common causes of chapped lips and can be prevented by avoiding licking your lips and exposing your lips to cold weather for too long.

Using lip balm is the best way to help chapped lips, there are specific medicated chapsticks that are made for chapped lips such as O’Keefe’s lip repair, eos medicated lip balm, Burt’s Bees medicated edition, Neosporin lip health, Dr. Dan’s Cortibalm, Baby Lips Dr. Rescue, Classic Medicated Chapstick brand, Ultra Repair Lip Therapy, and Aquaphor Lip Repair, according to a Rank and Style reporter.