Natural Cures for Puffy Eyes and Dark Circles - Avoid Stress, Allergens, Caffeine, Smoking and Improve Sleep and Nutrition

Natural Cures For Bags and Dark Circles Under Your Eyes and Puffy or Irritated Skin Around the Eyes: Avoid Stress, Allergens, Caffeine, Smoking and Improve Sleep and Nutrition

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	Natural Cures for Puffy Eyes and Dark Circles
	By Edna Grace Do you have puffy and/or baggy eyes? Are dark circles under your eyes a constant feature of your face? Puffy eyes with dark circles are common in both men and women. If you experience baggy eyes, then you know that they can make you look old, tired and unhealthy. Is there any relief from this affliction? Yes, you can relieve puffy eyes in a variety of ways. The first step to curing baggy eyes is to understand what causes the dark circles and the puffiness. Below is a list of the many known causes of dark, puffy eyes: Lack of Proper Nutrition Of all the skin on the body, the skin around the eyes is the most fragile. Over time, through both the process of aging and the lack of proper nutrition, the skin loses its elasticity. There are certain nutrients that a body must have to stay vibrant and healthy. Examples of proper nutrition for preventing puffy and dark circles under the eyes include the following. (note: These suggestions are based on remedies that have worked for some people. Please consult a physician before implementing any nutritional regime.) 5 Tips for Better Nutrition 1. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is essential for synthesizing collagen. It is also a natural diuretic, which helps remove excess water from the body that may be causing swelling under the eyes. For a more effective form of Vitamin C, consider taking one that contains bioflavinoids. At least 500 mg per day is recommended. 2. Vitamins in the B family are very important for many functions of the body, including helping you deal with stress that can lead to puffy, tired eyes. 3. Grapeseed Oil is an antioxidant that has been found effective for reducing eyestrain. 4. Water is a vital part of any health regimen. Staying hydrated keeps you supple, fluid and well balanced. It’s great for your skin, prevents water retention and in general helps to keep all of your basic bodily functions working properly. Opinions vary as to how much is enough, but a good rule of thumb is the old standard of eight glasses each day. Consult a health care professional to find out exactly how much water is healthy for your body. 5. A special cleansing diet can help rid the body of toxins that may be causing dark circles and/or puffiness under the eyes. Consult a health care professional for the cleanse that is right for you. 3 Things to Avoid 1. Sodium, either by way of straight salt or foods that contain salt, can contribute to the retention of water in the body. Often this can make your eyes puffy. If water retention seems to be a problem for you, try cutting down on your intake of salt/sodium. 2. Caffeine also promotes water retention and should be avoided as much as possible. 3. Diuretic pills are often used to remove excess water from the body, but be careful when using this method as many people have experienced negative side effects from them. As an alternative to diuretic pills, you may want to consider using Vitamin C. As mentioned above, Vitamin C is a natural and safe diuretic, as is water. Fatigue and Stress One of the most common causes of dark circles under the eyes is tiredness. Lack of sleep can make your skin paler, which allows the dark, bluish blood under the skin to show through more. This will make your eyes look darker. Your eyes can get tired not only from sleep deprivation, but also extended periods of time spent in front of a computer or television screen or any activity that stresses or strains the eyes. If you strain your eyes on a regular basis, you may want to consider one or more of the following suggestions. 5 Ways to Avoid Fatigue and Stress(or at least look like it) 1. The first and most obvious solution is to get more rest. This may not seem like a priority in your life at the moment but if you are consistently plagued with bags under your eyes, you may need to figure out how to fit in enough sleep. 2. Stress reportedly increases your body’s production of melanin under your eyes. Finding ways to reduce your stress levels can be incredibly beneficial to your overall appearance, including helping to eliminate those dreaded baggy eyes. 3. A quick way to revitalize your eyes is to lay slices of cucumbers or a cool cloth over the closed eyelids while reclining. This can be just a brief 15-20 minute rest that you take during the day, but it can make a huge difference in how awake and vibrant you look and feel. It’s nice to lie down in a quiet space while shutting out as much light as possible. This will allow your entire body as well as your eyes to have a “power nap”. You’d be surprised at how beneficial it can be to take just a few minutes of down time. You can also try this with tea bags over the eyes rather than cucumbers. Chamomile tea is a popular choice as it is very calming and soothing. To prepare, simply boil water and pour it over two tea bags of chamomile tea. Just after they start to lose color, remove the tea bags, envelop them in plastic wrap or a Ziploc bag to retain moisture and put them in the refrigerator until cool. (You don’t want them to get too cold as that could be damaging to the tissues around the eye.) When you are ready to take your rest, simply remove the tea bags from the plastic wrap, lie down and place one tea bag on each closed eyelid. 4. If you find that your eyes are especially swollen in the morning, it may be the position you sleep in that is contributing to the puffiness in your eyes. Try elevating your head a bit by adding another pillow. This will prevent the build up of fluids under your eyes. After a week or two, you should notice a difference. 5. For a quick cover up to tired, bloodshot eyes, you can use eye drops. This method is only effective in making your eyes not look fatigued, but they will still feel that way.

	5 More Potential Causes of Puffy Eyes and Dark Circles Allergies Puffy or swollen eyes can also often be attributed to an allergic reaction. Living in the world can put you in contact with an enormous amount of allergens. They could be environmental irritants such as pollen, grass or second hand cigarette smoke or they could be food allergies such as peanuts, wheat or dairy. Oftentimes people are allergic to a substance and are completely unaware of it. This is usually because the allergic reaction is not intense, but instead much more subtle and persistent. A severe allergic reaction can include hives, hacking, coughing, constriction of breathing capacity, redness, itching, boils and much more. On the other hand, a low-level allergic reaction will usually manifest in bloodshot eyes with dark circles and puffy bags under the eyes, often accompanied by a slightly stuffy nose. That’s right, the bags under your eyes may be a sign that you are suffering from an allergy. The best way to determine whether you have allergies is to go to a health care professional to be tested. There are a variety of ways to be tested for allergies. More traditional methods include a skin scratch test and a blood test. Alternative methods include muscle testing and a heart pulse test. Whichever method you choose, use the information to help determine what your body may be reacting badly to, and then do your best to cut those substances out of your diet and/or your environment. You may be surprised at how well your body works when it’s not busy fighting off an irritating allergen. If your doctor prescribes an allergy medication, be careful of any that contain cortisone, as the problems it will cause far outweigh the ones it will fix. Smoking Whether you are smoker or are just often around people who smoke, this habit can affect not just your inward health but also your outward appearance. Among many other things, cigarette smoke can, at best make your eyes bloodshot and watery and at worst cause an allergic reaction of puffy, swollen eyes. If you smoke and suffer from puffy bags and dark circles under your eyes, you may want to consider quitting or cutting down. If you suffer from these symptoms by way of secondary smoke, find the freshest air possible when in the company of smokers and, whenever possible, avoid places with cigarette smoke altogether. Contact with cigarette smoke, directly or indirectly, also depletes the amount of Vitamin C in your body, so it is a great idea to up your intake of this vitamin in order to counteract the affects of smoking. Thyroid Issues Women are 70-80% more likely than men to have a thyroid issue, although men are not immune. People who are hypo- or hyperthyroid, often have very baggy eyes. Puffy eyes with dark circles underneath is just one of the many symptoms of a thyroid issue. If you know you have a thyroid issue, or suspect that you do, please see a health care professional as soon as possible. He or she can help guide you to the best method of balancing out your thyroid. Taking care of this will greatly enhance your overall health as well as alleviate the bags under your eyes. Heredity In some cases, the dark circles under your eyes could be hereditary. Dark circles under the eye are similar to varicose veins both in the way that they can be passed down through a family and the way that they become manifest in the body. If your skin is thin, the bluish blood flowing through the veins that are close to the surface will show through. As mentioned above, the skin under the eye is already some of the most thin and delicate skin in the body. If, hereditarily, your skin is even thinner and more transparent than normal, the likelihood that the circles under your eye will appear dark and discolored is much greater. Skin Care Products and Cosmetics The products you use on your face and/or the way you apply them may also be responsible for causing baggy, swollen eyes. When selecting any skin care product and especially one that will be applied around your eyes, you want to make sure they are pH balanced and hypoallergenic. You also want to make sure not to apply any creams, lotions or cosmetics over the inside corner of your eye, where the tear duct is. Clogging the tear duct can cause irritation, swelling, puffiness and redness in and below the eyes. When covering up dark circles with cosmetics, choose a product that covers well but is light and smooth in texture. Make sure to use a product that has Mica in it, so that it will reflect light properly, causing the area around the eyes to appear lighter, not darker. Also, concealers that contain oils should be avoided because the oils can settle into the fine lines in the skin and around the eyes and result in emphasizing these areas rather than masking them. Live Healthy and Kiss Those Bags Goodbye The most important thing to remember when trying to get rid of dark circles or bags under your eyes is that lifestyle choices can have a huge impact on your overall appearance. You don’t have to feel cursed with puffy eyes. You don’t have to learn to live with perpetual dark circles under your eyes. You have a plethora of choices. Eat well, drink plenty of water, quit smoking, avoid allergens, reduce stress, get plenty of rest and you’ll discover a much younger-looking, more energetic and lively you!