so a super common question I get as an eye doctor is: how to get rid of under eye bags? I bet at
some point you've looked in the mirror and saw your eyelids looking puffy and you're like,
Why do i have these bags under my eyes? and ultimately how do i get rid of them? and I've
seen a lot of BS stuff on YouTube as well as on the internet just kind of talking about ways to
remove eye bags so I wanted to shed some light on the subject that's today's video let's take a look
hey what's up this is Dr Allen here from the Doctor Eye Health show helping you learn all
about the eyes vision and finding the best vision products if you're new here to the channel and
like learning about the eyes seeing your best then hit that subscribe button down below and
ring the bell so that you don't miss any of our future videos now in this video i first want to
go over how to get rid of eye bags naturally, as a lot of my viewers on this channel and my
patients in the clinic including myself we're not big fans of taking medications if we don't have to
but then I also want to comment on under eye bag creams and really why I don't recommend them and
then we'll comment on different surgical options for treatment for under eye bags
but first here are a few things that you can do at home tip number one is to avoid high salt
diets when you eat a lot of salty food that's going to cause water to accumulate in your tissues
leading to swollen puffy eyes with that under eye bag appearance it's not the true number one cause
for having under eye bags but it certainly causes this issue for a lot of people and
it will exacerbate your symptoms and this is even the same reason why people get puffy eyelids after
crying because the salt content of your tears ends up drawing water into the tissue causing swollen
puffy eyelids leading to those under eye bags in this case for anybody with a swollen puffy eyelid
use cold compresses cold compresses will help shrink the blood vessels around the eye
causing the eyelids to look less puffy now of course people have always seen these videos of
people with cucumbers on their eyes i don't think there's anything magical about the cucumber itself
maybe antioxidants but i don't have any real studies to base that off of
and it's really probably just the coolness of having a cold cucumber on the eye that's really
doing the help at home of course you can do a cold compress with an ice pack for example a
cold compressed mask or you can use something like a bag of peas or even do the frozen spoon trick
it's really not that technical you just want to get something cold to those eyelids to shrink
them down and then hopefully you won't have such a large appearance of those under eye bags
now another big issue for under eye bags is eye allergies allergies are going to cause histamine
to be released from your tissue that's going to cause your blood vessels and your tissues to
swell up become red and you'll have that itchy sensation number one do not rub your eyes when
you're having eye allergies it'll feel good at first but really just makes things worse two
using a cold compress like we just discussed should help with a lot of the symptoms and
bring down some of that swelling and number three there are great antihistamine eye allergy drops
and oral antihistamines that can help with this thankfully we have great eye allergy drops and
I've done a couple of videos on some of the best ones you can always look those up if you want to
check them out otherwise the only warning i would give out about using any oral antihistamines is
that they often do dry out your tissues and so a lot of people on those medications for allergies
can end up with really dry eyes so watch out for that now before we talk about under eye bag creams
let me know that you're getting value out of this video by smashing the like button because
that's going to let me know that i should keep making videos like this thanks now when it comes
to under eye bag creams there are about a million different brands out there on the market and I'm
honestly not a big fan of them and I'll tell you why most of these under eye bag creams such as
serum albumin is a lid or skin tightening cream and yes some of them do work but they're only
temporary as a fix they ultimately don't solve the issue and most of these different cosmetics
these creams they're not regulated and so they use preservatives which many of these preservatives
have been found to cause permanent damage to the oil glands in the eyelids and that can lead to not
only dry skin on the eyelid which again the skin is very thin and delicate and then you can end up
with really severe dry eye disease that's exactly why most eye doctors do not recommend using
retinol face creams on the eyelid because there have been studies showing that those creams can
cause permanent damage to the Meibomian glands in the eyelid leading to evaporative dry eye disease
so again i personally do not recommend under eye bag creams but I know if you're looking for either
moisturizing creams for the eyes sunblock around the eyes or even you're looking for makeup or
something on the eyes that's eye friendly this is becoming a bigger concern in eye care and so some
companies are researching this and coming out with products I'll try to put some links in the
video description below in case you're interested in just finding again something that's more eye
friendly now the true number one cause for under eye bags largely has to do with changes of your
eyelids skin and the fat around your eyes the skin of your eyelid is the thinnest skin on your
body and underneath the skin is a piece of tissue which when we're young is fairly rigid and holds
the fat behind it in place but then as you get older due to damage of the skin and this tissue
whether it be from sunlight or UV light exposure due to age and genetics the tissue becomes very
elastic which means the fat behind it starts to push and it protrudes outward leading to under
eye bags which makes it really tough to hear for a lot of people that this is largely due to age
and there's not really a miracle cure for it but because of these reasons that is why oftentimes
surgical correction is kind of the end-all be-all treatment for under eye bags we call this surgery
for having under eye bags called a lower eyelid blepharoplasty sometimes referred to as a lower
eyelid lift this is where your surgeon will go in underneath your eyelid and make an incision
and they'll remove some of this orbital puffy orbital fat from underneath that lower puffy
eyelid and they make the incision under the eyelid that way when it heals you don't have this obvious
scar on your face now of course surgery may not be for everyone but if you are thinking hey I have
this I just want to get it done i want to talk to a medical professional about what's going on
I encourage you to reach out to a local eye care professional especially one that may work with
oculoplastic surgeons who are familiar with it as well as helping you kind of coordinate your care
thankfully most major cities and medical centers do have an oculoplastic surgeon or just a plastic
surgeon in general who has experience doing lower lid blepharoplasties one extra tip I like to throw
out there is about prevention and preventing your under eye bags from getting worse I think
one ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment right so wearing UV light protecting
sunblock on your skin regularly when you're outside wide brim hats and sunglasses are great
tips to help slow down sunlight damage to your skin because the vast majority of early aging
and damage to your skin tissues especially the thin eyelid has to do with sunlight exposure so
hey I hope you enjoyed this video and I'll pass it off to you to let me know in the comment section
what your favorite part of the video was is there any other questions you have about under eye bags
or under eye bag treatment again let me know in the comment section otherwise thank you so
much for watching again if you enjoyed today's video hit that like button for me subscribe if
you have not done so already and if you have confusion about kind of what under eye bags
are versus things like dark circles I did a video on dark circles about a year ago it'd
probably help you out if you want to check out that video go ahead and click or tap the screen
up over here to the side or if you just have other questions concerns about eye care contact lenses
glasses surgeries like Lasik go ahead and click or tap the screen down over here again this is
Dr. Allen here from the Dr Eye Health show, keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you soon