Puffiness Below Eyes, Hydrangea, Nettles
Answered by: Christine Dennis
Question from: Christie
Posted on: November 21, 2007

I am 59 years. I have good health. This is probably a vanity question [about puffiness below the eyes] -- but I have tried every eye cream, have used cool cloths, cucumbers, tea bags, even haemorrhoid cream. Nothing helps.

I know I need to be better about eliminating most salt from my diet, getting more rest. I do try to hydrate myself with a lot of water. If I had more self control -- I would put myself on a fruit diet for about 3 or 4 days. I believe it’s probably a problem that needs to be fixed from the inside.

I am getting older -- and I see a lot of men and women with this problem as they age.

Do you have any suggestions. I thought about doing a kidney cleanse and a liver cleanse. Are there any herbs you could suggest?

Yes, healing this condition needs to come from within the body. Topical applications can only offer temporary relief at best. Even excessive intake of the wrong fluids can also lead to puffiness so hydrating with the proper fluids as well as the proper amounts is important. After all, not everyone should drink eight 8oz glasses of water everyday. We are all individuals and must be treated as such.

Puffiness under eyes develop from two main causes: 1/ a pooling of liquid or 2/ a pooling of mucus. The first type has an appearance that is swollen and watery looking whilst the second type has a fatty appearance along with the swelling. Both types are the result of an imbalance/weakness in an excretion system - kidney/bladder, liver/bowels or sometimes the lungs/upper respiratory passages. Causes of these imbalances vary from stress, lack of sleep, food sensitivities and more. It is necessary to determine which system has the imbalance, then address the underlying cause. Both types indicate a decline in physical and/or mental health vitality as a result of the various imbalances. For help in determining the imbalanced/weak system or the root causes, consult a registered herbalist.

Often times the tendency is to cleanse a system when really restoring and nourishing is what is needed. An excellent gentle tonic and a good place to start for this sort of condition is nettles and is available for purchase from the Richters website at

http://www.richters.com/Web_store/web_store.cgi?product=X4270.

Make a strong over night infusion using 1 cup of nettles to 1 litre of fresh boiled water and let sit over night. In the morning strain and drink it all over the course of the day. Nettles not only helps the body balance fluids but also helps to nourish and restore balance throughout the body via its gentle cleansing action and high mineral content.

Dietary recommendations are often required as well. For example for watery type puffiness proper liquid intake is important but for the mucous type, a focus needs to be made looking at the mucous forming foods such as dairy and refined foods and fat forming foods such as inflammatory fats in the diet as well as.

For more information on puffy eyes see

http://www.richters.com/show.cgi?page=./QandA/Medicinal/20040930-1.html

I have some hydrangea capsules that help with inflammation in the body.

Hydrangea is a diuretic herb and may or may not be indicated for you depending on the various factors mentioned above. For more information, see

http://www.richters.com/qa-search.cgi?search=hydrangea

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