All of us have experienced bags under the eyes at some time or another, usually as a result of not enough sleep. In that case, getting caught up on rest can clear up the condition within a day or two. But in cases where bags under your eyes persist, you need to discover the cause before you can take the cure.

It might seem that bags under your eyes are an indication that something is not quite right. I once worked with a delightful and lovely young woman—I think she was about twenty-three years old.  She had  perfect body, beautiful, shining hair, straight and clean white teeth, and flawless skin…save that she had layers of bags under the eyes, which made onlookers think she was either fatally ill, had a big time sleep deprivation problem, or had a terrible drug or alcohol problem. But she was genetically predisposed to this cruel feature, one to which no remedy applied would alleviate or remove.

One’s physical appearance is economically driven (the best-looking people have the most success in the business world, according to some statistic or other). It is a major contributor to the biological imperative (eyes spaced just so far apart, lips lush, hips of perfect child-bearing proportions and capacities, according to anthropologist Desmond Morris and others, are signs of symmetry and quality of species…which potential mates unconsciously measure). And, of course, physical appeal—youth and beauty at the top of the list of desirable traits—is brainwashed as the be all and end all for this our consuming culture.

Unless you are a hermit, you will be out in public at least part of your day, and your face is the one body part that is extremely difficult to hide. This makes those bags under your eyes all the more troublesome. So what cause those bags?

Technically, bags under your eyes indicates that you have fluid collecting in the loose skin or a filling of the fat deposits in that area (creating shadows), says one health professional at TeenHealthFX. And causally, you have bags under your eyes (or dark circles under your eyes), as nine out of 10 people do at one time or another in their lives (according to azcentral.com), because of numerous possible (and combined) sources:

--Stress
--Vitamin-deficiency
--Cigarette-smoking
--Disease or illness (or organ damage)
--Natural aging
--Poor diet
--Overexposure to sunlight
--Overuse (number one culprit: long-term pc monitor-reading)
--Sleep deprivation
--Allergies
--Genetics/heredity

So the next thing you might want to know is what to do about those bags under your eyes—how to lessen the bags or lighten the dark circles. Here’s where the beauty industry comes in, providing answers from solutions to surgery. But for some milder cases, good old fashioned organic “remedies” still suffice.

Some people apply warm (pre-steeped) teabags for about ten to fifteen minutes. Others use a slice of raw potato cut in half, each half they put under each eye for about twenty minutes. And still others swear by the standby cucumber slices. Then again, there are scads of creams and lotions, anti-aging to anti-oxidant, which are claimed to really work for every purpose…save the hereditary.

Getting rid of the bags under your eyes may take some time and major lifestyle changes such as getting more rest and avoiding alcohol and cigarettes. But if you value your appearance, these changes will be worth the effort. An added bonus will be the improvement in your overall health such changes will bring.