Having only spent a few hours of sleep or after spending some hours binging on your favorite TV program, the chance is good that you will wake up or realize that there is something dark lining the lower eyelid on your face. For simplicity, medical science refers to this darkened area below the eyelid as “dark circles.”
What Causes Dark Circles?
Although lack of sleep and fatigue are two of the most common causes of dark circles for most people, there are also other factors that contribute to their appearance on our faces which includes:
- Too much sleeping
- Eyestrain
- Dehydration
- Allergies
- Too much sun exposure
- Age
- Genetics
With the exception of eyestrain, sun exposure, and genetics, all the factors that cause dark circles also contribute to the development of eye bags as underpinned by the pooling of liquid underneath the eyes.
Treatment Against Dark Circles
There are both natural and medically-related means of treating a nasty pair of dark circles on our face. Depending on your choice, the level of treatment may range between being cheap and easy to do at home or requiring medical intervention that may be quite expensive.
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Treatment Options at Home
Not all cases of dark circles are severe that they require an immediate medical procedure. As bad looking as they are, those dark areas are not necessarily permanent as they subside after some time, especially with the right personal meditation:
- Apply cold compress: Anything cold has a way of inducing constriction to dilated blood vessels which causes the dark coloration in our dark circles. By reducing the diameter of the opening of the blood vessels such as by placing over a cold compress on our eyes, the darkened parts subsequently fade away.
- Sleep better: Sleep deprivation has a way of making our skin look pale. Compounded by the stress of lacking needed rest, the shades of the dark circles become more ostensive. When you choose to sleep more properly, you eliminate the side-effects that often come with lack of sleep and stress.
- Apply tea bags on your eyes: Teas are well-documented when it comes to their antioxidants and caffeine contents which stimulate blood circulation, cause the blood vessels to shrink, and retain moisture in the skin. But these benefits do not only happen when the tea is consumed. Merely applying a cold tea bag on the eyes is already enough to induce such benefits.
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Medical Procedures
When natural treatments against dark circles are not giving the fast enough solution to its posed problem, a faster and more effective alternative would be to treat the condition with the help of a trained medical professional with any of the following method:
- Chemically-induced peeling to lessen dark pigmentation
- Via laser surgery which uplifts the skin while also promoting skin tightening
- Injection of pigment, also known as “medical tattoo”
- Concealing of blood vessels and darkened skin with the filling of tissues
- Removal of excess fats and skin on the affected area
- Surgical insertion of synthetic product or fat
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Diet
The quality of the food we eat has a way of affecting our outward appearance. When you relate the presence of dark circles with stress, it is quite easy to assume and postulate how this skin condition can also be relieved with healthy foods that help the body fight off stress. The treatment against dark circles is, therefore, more than just external in nature, it also happens from within.
If you are looking for the right kind of food to consume that will give the best solution to the problem of dark circles as possible, eating the following foods would be key:
- Cucumber: Not only does a cucumber contain a respectable amount of water which will significantly add to the hydration of the body, but it also packs with important vitamins and minerals that aid in the reduction of dark circles.
- Watermelon: Almost similar to cucumber, but has more water for better hydration power.
- Tomato: Rich in needed antioxidants which helps rid dark circles by reducing the dilation of the blood vessels around the eye area.
- Sesame: Rich in skin-loving vitamin E that is pivotal in the battle against dark circles.
- Black Currant: Also contains a good amount of antioxidants which help deliver oxygen to the tissues around the eyes, substantially reducing its dark pigmentation.
