You blame your under-eye dark circles on a sleepless night. But you soon realise that they are a permanent eyesore, despite the fact that you’ve been sleeping well lately. Dr Gulshant Panesar, a dermatologist with Moolchand Medcity, New Delhi, explains the physiology behind dark circles. “The capillaries under the eye are very thin and when they burst, they cause the blood to leak—it’s only a minor leak though, nothing to get worked up about as such. The deoxygenated blood that is leaked makes the area under the eye look bluish. It’s a kind of pigmentation that becomes more apparent because the skin under the eye is one of the thinnest in the body,” she explains.

Dark circles, says Dr Paneshar, are a symptom of other bodily changes or conditions and unless those conditions are treated, you’ll have to bear with dark circles. “Dark circles are mostly related to stress, dietary deficiency, hormonal imbalance, prolonged treatment for any chronic illness, ageing and genes,” she says.
Eye circles can thus be removed after the underlying medical cause is removed. If the underlying cause is hormonal imbalance, such as in thyroid disease, “dark circles will automatically go once the medical condition subsides or is in control,” says Panesar. Ironically, prolonged medical treatment of any chronic disease also leads to dark circles.

“If it’s a result of dietary deficiency, we prescribe supplements of the vitamins or minerals that are in short supply in the patient’s body," says Panesar. The most common dietary cause is iron deficiency for which doctors ask you to eat bananas, apples and jaggery—all rich in iron—or they give you ferrous sulphate tablets.
Sometimes, explains Dr Mukesh Girdhar, dermatologist with Max Healthcare, New Delhi, dark circles result from mild inflammation cause by rubbing the lower eyelid. “It’s a very subtle low-grade inflammation which is almost painless but can manifest in the form of dark circles, for which we prescribe anti-inflammatory medication,” he says.
It’s only when dark circles have been inherited from family, that there’s no permanent solution. In such case, doctors advise you to wear sunscreen, apply a topical solution consisting of hydroquinone, arbutin and mild acids such as glycolic or cogic acid.

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