Have you ever come across the dark area below your lower eyelid? Have you ever thought about the reasons that lead to such blackening of the area below the lower eyelid? Many of us don’t even know whether it is an alarming condition for our health or not. In this article, we will discuss what are the black circles, their causes, and how to get rid of them
Dark circles are the black areas below your eyes that can be either due to physiological (Normal) causes or may be associated with some underlying disease factor. It is something different from the panda eyes. These dark circles are totally as a result of skin discoloration without any injury, internal bleeding, or hemorrhage. These dark circles impart a negative impact on your appearance and may lead to mental health issues and an inferiority complex.
According to the research conducted by the dermatologists, it is concluded that dark circles are strongly associated with your genes as they run in families, they often happen when you age and people belonging to black ethnicity are more prone to getting hyperpigmentation area below the eyes.
Medically, many reasons can lead to dark circles. Dark circles can be a result of complex medical pathology ongoing in our body or maybe a result of simple fatigue. Below mentioned are the common causes of dark circles
- Heredity and Genetics
Dark circles run in families. It’s our genetic material that determines whether we will be getting such weird circles below the eyes or not. Researches have proved that in most cases if your father has genes for dark circles, surely you will get these too.
- The consequence of medical diseases
Most of the time, dark circles can represent any ongoing chronic disease in our body. They can be a result of anemia, allergies, malnutrition, thyroid malfunction, and different fungal infections.
- Getting your skin exposed to sun rays
Excessive exposure of skin to the sun can sometimes lead to dark circles. It is because of the fact that skin cells of our lower eye eyelid areas can absorb the sunlight easily and eventually there is the production of large quantities of melanin pigment.
- Age
As we age, there is much less production of important connective tissues in our skin that maintain its integrity. It can lead to wrinkles production and blackening of skin below the lower eyelid.
- Excessive stress and poor sleep hygiene
Our body works well when we have a certain routine to perform our daily chores. Abusing the routine by working long hours, taking less rest, and sleeping less and in unordinary hours can lead to the production of dark circles.
- Dehydration
Loss of water either by diarrhea, voting, or taking less quantity of water than advised can lead to the production of dark circles.
- Eye strain by watching long hours of television
Excessive straining on eyes can lead to excessive blood flow in the blood vessels of our eyes and our vessels start getting bigger and bigger. This hypertrophy of blood vessels is visualized as dark circles around the eyes.
How to treat dark circles
Dark circles can be treated at home or can be treated by using different dermatological products. The treatment options are given below
The sole principle behind treating the dark circles is to treat the cause. No matter it’s your sleep routine, any ongoing disease, or stress. If you target a certain cause, a cure will be there too. Following natural remedies are very much helpful in home settings
- Application of cold water or cold compression around the areas of the eyes can result in the shrinkage of dilated and tortuous blood vessels eventually reducing dark circles. Results are very satisfying and can be seen in around 4-5 weeks.
- Tea is an antioxidant and stress reliever as it contains numerous ingredients that help relieve stress. Drinking caffeinated drinks or tea bag application around the eyes can result in positive effects.
- Build a good sleep routine and try to increase your sleep time.
- There are different kinds of makeup products present in our market that help to hide such areas. They are concealers with almost zero side effects. They can be used to having such dark circles.
Medicinal treatment Options
Dermatological procedures and allopathic medicinal treatment options have also gained much traction these days to cope with such dark circles. These include
- Peeling of the skin using various dermatological tools can help to remove the dark areas around the eyes.
- Various tissue fillers are present in the market that are injected in the area below the eyelid to fill in the hyperpigmented areas.
- Melanin is one of the culprits that can lead to dark circles. Various dermatological procedures are present to replace the skin melanin cells hence resulting in dark circle reduction.
- Surgical procedures are also present to implant fats but they are costly and carry many side effects.
Dark circles are treatable and preventable conditions. It can be a serious cause of inferiority complex among our teenagers and adults too. Having dark circles can be normal but it is important to consult your health care practitioner to get yourself screened as it can be a consequence of some underlying disease.
References
Freitag, F. M., and T. F. Cestari. 2007. “What Causes Dark Circles under the Eyes?” Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology 6 (3). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1473-2165.2007.00324.x.
Vrcek, Ivan, Omar Ozgur, and Tanuj Nakra. 2016. “Infraorbital Dark Circles: A Review of the Pathogenesis, Evaluation and Treatment.” Journal of Cutaneous and Aesthetic Surgery 9 (2): 65.
