It is common that if a person cries a lot, then the color of his eyes fades over time. We decided to check if such a point of view is confirmed by science.

The image of faded eyes is constantly Found In the literature. Barlam Shalamov in the collection "Kolyma Stories" Writes: “Blue eyes fade. In childhood-cornflowering, turn into dirty-muddy, gray-blue philistine eyes over the years. " Konstantin Paustovsky Curses Such an image: "Eyes fade in a gloomy work." Nikolai Gainz in the novel "Prince of Taurida" Uses Such a dialogue: “ - stop, stop, spoil your eyes, can you cry, your eyes fade from tears. I already saw your father in my youth and grief, and even then I didn’t cry, I was afraid ... - What? - through tears asked her daughter. “But the fact that the eyes will fade.” Viktor Kruglov in the collection "Radist Special Purpose" also Reaches To this image: "You hear, mother, do not worry again, // After all, your eyes fade from tears." The answer to the question of whether they can fade from tears, users of the Internet are looking for on resources with questions And answersas well as in Media.

Eye color, just like hair and skin color, Determined Pigment Melanin. Iris consists of From two layers: Mesodermal front and ectodermal rear. In the mesoderma layer Located The reflective and pigment -containing chromatophore cells - it is in them melanin is contained, 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. Also, in the formation of the color of the eye, the role of blood vessels and collagen fibers of the rainbow shell play the role. 

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 system - Schulza. Blue and blue shades manifest Then, when melanin is not enough, and collagen fibers are distributed relatively tightly. The scattering of the hitting light inside the cornea - the transparent convex lens of the outer capsule of the eye - gives shades of the blue spectrum. If the collagen fibers are even denser, and melanin is just as small, then the color of the eye Determined Like gray. For yellow and green shades answers The additional pigment lipofuscin, while the density of collagen fibers is about the same as that of blue -eyed. The brown eyes indicate that there is a lot of melanin in the rainbow shell. Purely black eyes are found when the concentration of melanin reaches a maximum.

Although in schools Teachthat the color of the eyes is directly Inherited According to the rules of classical genetics, that is, for dark eyes Answer Dominant genes, and for the bright - recessive, in fact, everything is somewhat more complicated. Research the latter decades Find All New Genes, influencing on color eye.

So that the cornea does not dry out, the body regularly produces Tears. It is produced by special glands located in the upper lateral corner of the eye socket. In order for the eye to lose color from the frequent profuse production of tears, Melanin should simply washed it out of the iris out. Such an assumption is essentially approximately the same as if we believed that the dark color of the skin or hair can be highlighted with regular washing. Moreover, tears are only on the surface of the eye and do not fall into the mesoderma layer of the rainbow shell, which is located behind the cornea. 

At the same time, tears can have a short -term effect on the color of the eyes, however, the opposite of fading. Due to the fluid on the surface of the protein Starts It seems even lighter, and the droplets themselves create a shine, so the shaded rainbow shell looks brighter. Of course, this effect does not last long, and as soon as a person stops crying, the protein and the rainbow shell will gradually return to their natural shades.

However, not only tears can change the color of the eyes. Firstly, on the subjective perception of the color of the rainbow shell influences The surrounding palette. Makeup, clothes, hair color and headgear can change how the eye color will be perceived by an outside observer.

Secondly, how others perceive the color of a person’s eye, can affect the diameter of the pupil. Some emotions, such as pain or affect, bring To the fact that the pupil is expanding. Subjectively with an extended pupil, eye color Maybe It is perceived differently - perhaps it is precisely this that the literary turnover is connected "the eyes darkened with anger." 

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 by ophthalmologists of the disease - Pigment dispersion syndrome. With such a pathology, the age cells of the rainbow shell are separated from it and begin to swim in a liquid filling the chamber of the eye. This syndrome leads to flexible vision and then to glaucoma, and the eye begins to look like the eye of Sauron from the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy: dark color and surrounded by an orange ring.

Cataract -The clouding of the lens-changes its color from transparent to milk-white. And although this pathology does not affect the rainbow shell, due to a change in the refraction of light, color can be perceived differently. Wilson's disease - Konovalov (pathological accumulation of copper in the body) can also change the color of the eye, since copper, including in the cornea, forms the green and yellow rings of the Kaiser-Fleisher.

But, most likely, the myth that eyes fade from tears appeared from another ophthalmological pathology-the senile arc, or Arcus Senilis. With her, white or grayish lipid deposits, accumulating with age on the periphery of the cornea, give the eyes a muddy blue or muddy gray color. The classic image of a character with eyes faded from tears is a very elderly person, and the most to the emergence of Arcus senilis inclined People over 50 years old. Unlike glaucoma and cataracts, this pathology usually does not affect vision. Only the appearance of such deposits and a change in the color of the eyes in young people should be alert, then there is reason to suspect atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries.

Thus, the assumption that the eyes can fade from tears as anti -rent as the assumption that the dark color of the skin and hair can be lightened with washing. At the same time, tears really affect how others perceive the color of our eyes - against the background of a moistened protein, the rainbow shell looks brighter. What really affects the color of the eyes is various pathological processes in the body. And for the eyes of old age, the accumulation of lipid deposits, which is incredible, called the Arcus Senilis, and it with frequent crying in the previous years of life is in no way connected for the eyes.

Image on the cover: See Page for AuthorPublic Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons

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