Hooray! It’s not herpes!
The Discovery
A few months ago my friend John mumbled a seemingly-random comment under his breath that started a long journey for the two of us:
My lips have had this weird chappiness for like a week now
What he didn’t expect was my reaction. I had been experiencing the same thing!
In the ensuing days, little tiny bumps appeared, and the chapping expanded out into the corners of my mouth, a good half-a-centimeter beyond my lips. What the crap was going on? Johno and I both took our usual approaches: mine was to simply ignore it in hopes that it would go away (hey, I lasted almost 10 years with my “slow-pee.” A few weeks with weird lip-chapping is nothing). Johno dove immediately into late-night Googling, and emerged with some terrible news:
I think we have lip-herpes
“lerpes,” as we began to call it, seemed the closest fit to our strange condition. But how was that possible? We couldn’t even think of a meal we had shared recently. And at least one of us has been completely monogomous his whole life.
After a few weeks it finally went away. Every week or so one of us would casually ask the other:
So, any lerpies lately?
The answer was always negatory, followed by assurances to each other that it must have been some fish we ate (which did in fact cause some other discomforts for the both of us).
A Breakthrough
While Johno was visiting his brother Harrison and Harrison’s wife Betsy, it was somehow revealed that whenever Betsy eats a mango, her lips break out if she comes in contact with the skin. It all clicked. Johno had been given a box of mangos, which he described eating like some kind of ravenous dog. Completely coincidently, I had also bought a few mangos around that same time and must have been a little too resourceful about getting all the innards out of the skin. So that was it! All settled. It wasn’t lerpes, it was in fact merpes. (or murps for short).
When a Mango, Let it Be
Do a google search for “mango allergy reaction” and you find some fascinating stuff. The mango tree is in the sumac family, with poison ivy as a relative. So if you happen to have particularly strong reaction to poison ivy, your body senses the oleoresin from the mango skin, thinks it’s poison ivy, says “we’ve seen this before, and this time we’re ready- send in the white blood cell reinforcements” which then go to town on your skin and you’re in for an itchy rash.
Proper Science
But we had to be sure. I mean, this is herpes we’re talking about. Against his druthers, Johno agreed to give it the full test. We at mangos every day for 5 days. On day 3, I convinced Johno to really get messy with it. By day 5 his lips were in for trouble. But as we all know, to really prove something you need a sample size of at least two. On day 5, just before tossing the skin I fiercely smeared it all over my mouth. Bingo! 3 days later, I’m in for 10 days worth of lip rash.
Aftermath
But there’s one sad ending to this otherwise fantastic adventure. Somehow in all the mango madness, and despite now wearing rubber gloves when preparing the delicious poison globes, I’ve managed to break out near my eye and on my cheek, and it itches like a hundred mosquito bites. So tomorrow I’m off to the nurse practitioner for some steroids and for the next week I’ll probably have Chelsey tie my hands behind my back when I sleep.
Just to show I’m not crazy for needing the proof, this lady had a much worse mango experience than I did, and carried out her own experiment. Anyway, if my face gets bad enough I’ll be sure to post a photo or something. But of course the big question on your mind is whether I’m going to eat mangos from now on. Sadly, yes. I’m drawn to them like Homer to the Forbidden Donut, or the spoiled giant sandwich. “Oh Mango, I could never stay mad at you!”
June 4th, 2009 at 7:20 am
[...] was told it was common but I never heard of anyone else being allergic to mangoes. But then I did some research and realised I’m not the only one! I don’t eat mangoes any more. Screw having to eat fruit with gloves after someone else [...]
June 5th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
I am also allergic to Mango. After peeling and eating a mango for the first time, I developed a rash under my wedding ring but I did not know what caused the rash. A few months later, I bought a mango for the second time and got the lip rash and also got a rash under my ring again. The rash was also on my thigh from contact with my hand. Over several days, the lip rash spread across my face and onto my eyelids. I went to the doctor and was prescribed steroids. Luckily, I realized that I had eaten mango both times before getting the rashes and found out that mango is related to poison ivy, which I am highly allergic to. So now I stay far away from mango!!! The rash under my ring was likely due to getting mango juice under the rings when I peeled the fruit, and when I washed my hands I didn’t remove my rings.
June 22nd, 2009 at 11:37 am
Thank goodness, this was a great read! I have had poison ivy and had a VERY BAD reaction to it, and also a very bad reaction to MANGOS with major lip irritation (took benadryl last night). My lips are still so itchy while I type, but thank goodness it’s just an allergic reaction and not herpes, as a doctor in past has indicated (again, same reaction in past from eating mangos).
July 5th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Well this site is a relief. I was scared crapless that I had a horrid case of cold sores, then I typed Mango allergy in google and found this. The mango I ate the other day was freakin’ DeLISH! And when I was done gorging myself, my lips burned!! I mentioned it to my husband, and he suggested it was probably just the acid of the mango. Then the other day I started noticing the blisters… So now I’m taking an over the counter antihistamine, and praying that this gets better before I have to go back to work…
I’m still going to eat Mangos tho. There are 8 more in the Fridge.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
I, too, am a victim of mangos. On my second round of this hell in 3 weeks (hey the mangos were on sale & I have just figured out that they were the source of my painful, blisterly lips). I had three of them, but tossed the last one out, since I had suspected that they were the problem. I spent 20.00 on that Abreva stuff for cold sores & couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working & it stung so bad!! Anyhow, my break-outs of merpes began about a day or two after eating them. I’m so glad you shared this website & to see that I’m not the only one who thought they were crazy!
August 21st, 2009 at 11:12 pm
thk u 4 posting your experience. i bought 3 mangos, had no clue, lips are bumpy and corner of mouth is all cracked, and it hurts and looks like i have lip injections! just threw out all of my tooth paste thinking it was crap from China or something! did a search on the net and found this
ahh thank you!
September 7th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
While I like mangoes no less than the next guy, it is my little sister who came down with lerpes. I got her googling to narrow down the source of the problem, and we ended up lol -ing after reading your piece. Excellent story-telling, and helpful advice. thanks!
September 17th, 2009 at 12:31 am
I learned something today, thanks. I often wondered why my mouth always felt funky when eating a mango. Love mangos.
September 17th, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Well after about 3 hours of google-ing I am so happy to hear that I don’t have herpes! I live in HI and one of my patients gave me the most amazing mango 3 days ago. I dug into the lovely fruit scraping the skin with my teeth and chewing the pulp off the pit…this morning I woke up with the tingling and little tiny bumps in the corners of my mouth. Instant paranoia!!! Could it be HERPES!?!?! After stressing all day and doing tons of research, I am confident it was the mango. Hard to accept but just happy that I won’t have a massive blister exploding on my face soon.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Wow. I am so glad I found your site. I have always been extremely allergic to poison ivy, and I always manage to get it at least once or twice a summer. As of late, I now need steroids to get over it, because it covers every inch of my body for weeks.
And 2 summers ago, while I was in the philippines, I ate alot of mango’s the first few days I was there and I had the worst allergic reaction to them too. My lips were so swollen and blistered that I could hardly talk. It lasted for a week, and needless to say I didn’t eat mango’s again.
Now last week, I experienced the same symptoms as when I’d eaten mango’s, and I couldn’t figure out what it was. But through some research, I’ve discovered that poison ivy, mango, AND cashews go hand-in-hand and when you’re allergic to one, you’re likely to be allergic to all three. And wouldn’t you know I’d just eaten a ton of cashews last week
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Thanks for this. I googled “mangoes cause herpes outbreak” and this is the only site that describes this occurrence. I just ate a mango and have had this problem before after eating mangoes so i quickly came to the conclusion that it caused a herpes outbreak. Thankfully it is not a herpes outbreak which means i may have cured myself of herpes long ago when i bought a non-toxic, bio-degradable commercial cleaner product calle EcoTru (renamed EnviroTru from EnviroSystems).
http://www.envirosi.com/envirotru.shtml
I ordered one spray bottle (at the time the option for one bottle was available, sprayed a cloth with it, held it to my lips for a few minutes, the moderate outbreak went away and left a whitish blemish which also went away relatively soon but was less noticeable than the outbreak itself.
March 23rd, 2010 at 3:07 pm
A question and a recommendation:
If i peel off the skin under running water will this help against the toxin?
The recommendation is after eating a mango rinse your mouth out and GENTLY wipe your lips and face with water that has dissolved baking soda in it. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is acidic in it’s natural state but the body reverses this Ph after it is ingested to an alkaline. Baking soda is an alkalizer and may help prevent the outbreak.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:10 pm
Unbelievable – I ate a mango on Saturday and another on Sunday – Monday my upper lip was very swollen and itchy – I did not know it was from mangos – I ate another one last night – As good as mangos are I am finished – can’t stand the itching. Thank you all for the info – I didn’t know what I had.
March 30th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
SO this is my issue! I had a mango about a week ago and I’m still suffering the repurcussions. I have a nasty rash all over my cheeks, neck and one ear
my lips are all crusty too. It totally blows! I’ve been taking benadryl and using cream like none other. How much longer must I wait for it to clear?!?!
April 9th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Thanks, guys. I stumbled on to your site after falling prey to that tasty siren … again. I’ve known of my affliction since I was 12 when it first popped up after an especially vigorous session with a mango pit. I didn’t realize until I read your site that it was (also) due to the skin. Perhaps I should refrain from sucking the dear life out of my snack foods and act like a lady for a change (my mother would be so proud). I guess I misunderstood the doctor then that the pit was the culprit, or, more likely, the truth was morphed by too many intervening years. In any case, the mango (I still have three in my fruit bowl) and I have come to a new understanding, and for that, I thank you.
April 16th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
My name is Cheree…and I’m an Mangoholic.
Hello Cheree!!
I have been clean and mangoless for 4 days now. I’m just taking it one day at a time. I started eating mangos when I was 8 years old. I once almost died from mango poisoning after going on an all weekend mango binge when I was 15. I’ve lost my job due to mangoism. I’ve lost friends and family. I’ve stolen from people I love just to get a mango fix. I’m at rock bottom. I am in detox now and the withdrawal symptoms are horrible. My lips look like someone took a cheese grater to them. I was in rehab with Mick Jagger and Angelina Jolie. Yes…they are mangoholics too!!! This is a hidden disease that noone wants to talk about. There are support groups like MAM (Mothers Against Mango’s). We all have a resposibility to end this horrible addiction.
btw… Mango hour starts at 5:00 and the mangorita’s are half off!!! :OO (thats my happy face but I cant smile because my lips are swollen).
May 12th, 2010 at 8:23 am
Wow!!! I have been trying to figure this one out for well over a year!!! It all clicks. I just popped up with this lip rash again on Monday. Just happens I had mangos on Sunday for lunch. And after reading this, it dawned on me that the last time I broke out like this was right after last year’s 4th of July party. I just thought my lips were sunburned and chapped from being overexposed to the sun. Nope. We had a Luau!! Lots of mangoes on everything!! How bittersweet. Finally a solution to my problem but it has now created for me a forbidden fruit. Don’t mind the Angelina Jolie lips but can certainly do without the crustiness. EEwwwww!!!!
May 24th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
OMG! I can’t believe I found the answer to my issue on a BLOG! Seriously, type in “lip bumps” and 99% of the articles are about Herpes. I also ran to the doctor on Friday and demanded a test. The only place I could think that I may have gotten Herpes would have been from sharing chapstick with my mother. Then I’m sitting at the doctor thinking – my MOTHER gave me herpes? You’ve got to be kidding!
But yes, I’ve also fallen victim to the super cheap mangoes in season, and when I cut them up, I also suck the excess fruit off of the skin. (They really are tricky little buggers to cut.) I haven’t had poison oak in years, but had several outbreaks as a child that kept me out of school for weeks. THANK YOU!!
May 26th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
The only remedy that I found to relieve the burning is CORONA antiseptic Ointment…its for horses, cattle, small animals & pets. It comes in a small jar for about $2.50. You can Google it on the internet.
May 27th, 2010 at 1:03 pm
Just in case you’re searching, as I was, to figure out how long you’ll be suffering with a blistered mouth from your mango skin encounter, Here’s my experience:
3 Days before Day 1: Ate a Mango, including getting the flesh out of the skin with my teeth after lunch. Did not wash face until that night.
Day 1: Noticed a couple little bumps on lips, and thought they were really chapped. Applied regular lip gloss (Carmex) as usual.
Day 2: Woke up with swollen, inflamed, blistery, painful, itchy lips. They looked and felt AWFUL.
: Applied vaseline and scoured the internet to figure out what was going on.
: Figured out it was a mango allergy, but wasn’t sure what to do for it. Stopped applying vaseline because some said it might be bad for poison ivy types of reactions because it keeps blisters from drying out.
: Took an Alavert-24 hour to try to help with the allergic reaction
: Bought Ivarest Poison Ivy Itch Relief Cream and Benadryl Itch Stopping Cream.
: Took an advil and applied the Ivarest at 6pm to my lips and surrounding skin area, and the Benadryl cream that night after washing my face, before bed.
– Incidentally, both are SUPER painful – burning, drying, etc. on your lips.
Day 3: Woke up and lips looked only slightly better – the blisters were drying up a bit from the creams.
: Took an advil, and applied Ivarest at 9:30am
: Took an Alavert-24 hour to try to help with the allergic reaction
: Applied Benadryl cream at 2pm and again at 5:30pm
: Applied Ivarest before bed
Day 4: Woke up and lips looked better – good enough that I was only somewhat mortified to have to go out of the house that day
: While outside the house, I removed the Ivarest/Benadryl and applied Lip Clear Lysine+ (a cold sore treatment) because it also claimed to dry out blisters (albiet of a different kind), is fairly clear, and is safe for use on your mouth (The others probably aren’t ideal for use on your mouth)
: Applied Ivarest at night
Day 5, 6, 7: Each night I applied Ivarest (again it is SUPER PAINFUL – burning, etc.), and during the day I used Lysine. Each day my lips looked progressively better.
: My lips and the area around them were peeling constantly from Days 4-8 – the nasty blistered skin was flaking off. It was gross, but I tried not to mess with it and just let it come off naturally.
Day 8: The last night I used Ivarest
By Day 9, my lips look almost completely better. There were few spots on the skin around my lips that didn’t start to get red or inflamed until around Days 4-6, and those are still a bit red, but my lips are pretty much back to normal.
Day 10 and 11, I’m just using regular Burts Bees Honey lip balm, and trying to get my mouth back to it’s non-dryed out state. But aside from dry skin around my mouth, everything looks pretty much normal.
I don’t know if the methods I used were ideal to treat this, but I figured I’d at least pass them along so you’d have the type of info I looked for when I first figured out what was wrong – and an idea of how long your lips would look so gross and be so painful!
Hang in there. You’ll survive.
June 15th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
Thank you thank you thank you folks! I have been having outbreaks for years and never could figure it out. Oh my God the internet has saved me untold pain and suffering for once! BTW I am highly allergic to poison ivy and oak and even was hospitalized twice from it…………NO MORE MANGO!