Is it true that eyes fade from tears?

It is a common belief that if a person cries a lot, the color of his eyes will fade over time. We decided to check whether this point of view is supported by science.

The image of faded eyes is constant meets in literature. Varlam Shalamov in the collection “Kolyma Stories” writes: “Blue eyes are fading. In childhood they are cornflower blue, but over the years they turn into dirty, cloudy, gray-blue philistine eyes.” Konstantin Paustovsky leads such an image: “The eyes fade in sad work.” Nikolai Heinze in the novel “Prince of Taurida” uses such a dialogue: “- Stop it, stop it, you’ll ruin your eyes, how can you cry, tears make your eyes fade. I saw your father in my youth and grief, and even then I didn’t cry, I was afraid... - What? — the daughter asked through tears. “But the fact that the eyes will fade.” Viktor Kruglov in the collection “Special Purpose Radio Operator” also resorts to this image: “Listen, mom, don’t worry again, // After all, your eyes fade from tears.” The answer to the question whether tears can make eyes fade, Internet users are looking for on resources with questions And answers, as well as in Media.

Eye color, as well as hair and skin color, determined melanin pigment. Iris consists of of two layers: mesodermal anterior and ectodermal posterior. In the mesodermal layer located light-reflecting and pigment-containing chromatophore cells - they contain melanin, and the color of the eyes will depend on the quantity and distribution of this pigment. The ectodermal layer is always dark, with the exception of albinos. The vessels and collagen fibers of the iris also play a role in the formation of eye color. 

In the Russian-speaking tradition, the main classification of eye colors is considered Bunak scale (it is also used in this text), and English-speaking science usually uses Martin-Schultz system. Blue and light blue shades appear when there is little melanin and collagen fibers are distributed relatively densely. The scattering of incoming light within the cornea - the transparent convex lens of the outer capsule of the eye - produces shades of the blue spectrum. If the collagen fibers are located even more densely, and there is just as little melanin, then the eye color determined like gray. For yellow and green shades answers additional pigment lipofuscin, while the density of collagen fibers is approximately the same as in blue-eyed people. Brown eyes indicate that there is a lot of melanin in the iris. Pure black eyes occur when the concentration of melanin reaches its maximum.

Although in schools teachthat eye color directly inherited according to the rules of classical genetics, that is, for dark eyes answer dominant genes, and for light ones - recessive, in fact, everything is somewhat more complicated. Research latest decades find All new genes, influencing on color eye.

To prevent the cornea from drying out, the body regularly produces tear fluid. It is produced by special glands located in the upper lateral corner of the orbit. In order for the eyes to lose color due to frequent, abundant production of tear fluid, the melanin would simply have to be washed out of the iris outward. This assumption is essentially the same as if we believed that dark skin or hair color can be lightened by regular washing. Moreover, tears are found only on the surface of the eye and do not enter the mesodermal layer of the iris, which is located behind the cornea. 

At the same time, tears can have a short-term effect on eye color, but it is the opposite of fading. Due to the liquid on the surface of the protein starts appear even lighter, and the droplets themselves create shine, so the shaded iris looks brighter. Of course, this effect does not last long, and as soon as the person stops crying, the whites and iris will gradually return to their natural shades.

However, not only tears can change eye color. Firstly, on the subjective perception of the color of the iris influences surrounding palette. Makeup, clothing, hair color and hat color can change how eye color appears to an outside observer.

Secondly, how others perceive the color of a person’s eyes can be influenced by the diameter of the pupil. Some emotions, such as pain or affect, lead to the fact that the pupil dilates. Subjectively, with a dilated pupil, eye color Maybe be perceived differently - perhaps this is what the literary expression “the eyes darkened with anger” is connected with. 

The real color of the eyes, and not its perception by others, is affected only by changes in the body itself. For example, a rare and not fully studied disease by ophthalmologists is pigment dispersion syndrome. With this pathology, the pigment cells of the iris separate from it and begin to float in the fluid that fills the chambers of the eye. This syndrome leads to blurred vision and then glaucoma, and the eye begins to look like the Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy: dark in color and surrounded by an orange ring.

Cataract - clouding of the lens - changes its color from transparent to milky white. And although this pathology does not affect the iris, due to changes in the refraction of light, color may be perceived differently. Wilson-Konovalov disease (pathological accumulation of copper in the body) can also change the color of the eye, since copper, deposited in the cornea, forms green-yellow Kaiser-Fleischer rings.

But, most likely, the myth that eyes fade from tears appeared due to another ophthalmological pathology - senile arch, or arcus senilis. In this condition, white or grayish lipid deposits that accumulate with age on the periphery of the cornea give the eyes a dull blue or dull gray color. The classic image of a character with eyes faded from tears is a very elderly man, and by the time arcus senilis appeared, the most inclined people over 50 years old. Unlike glaucoma and cataracts, this pathology usually does not affect vision in any way. Only the appearance of such deposits and changes in eye color in young people should be alarming, then there is reason to suspect atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries.

Thus, the assumption that tears can make eyes fade is as unscientific as the assumption that dark skin and hair can be lightened by washing. At the same time, tears actually affect how others perceive the color of our eyes - against the background of moisturized whites, the iris looks brighter. What really affects eye color is various pathological processes in the body. And the accumulation of lipid deposits, scientifically called arcus senilis, is most often responsible for eyes that become lighter in old age, and it has nothing to do with frequent crying in previous years of life.

Cover image: See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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