Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 7/16/2008

Question
what causes eye colour to change over time? recently my eyes have dramatically changed from bright blue to a dull blueish grey colour and i miss the colour of my old eyes. is there a way i could lighten them? like maybe using eye drops with a low concentrationf of lemon juice or something, obviously in a way that wont make me blind haha. i read that raw foods can help this but i dont have the time to change my diet completely like that just for eye colour. thanks for the help

Answer
Dear Leigh,

You don't say how old you are, nor whether you have been on any type of medication, either of which might help explain the color change of your eyes.

Eye color can change as one ages, and if your eyes are not as bright blue as they once were, this means that there is more melanin pigment being deposited in your iris than before.  Gene expression can change as we age, and there's sometimes no apparent reason.

Some medications can cause a change in eye color by inhibiting the deposition of pigment, but this isn't very common.

As far as I know, there is no way to lighten the color of your eyes.  Lemon juice would be caustic, as would any other substance you could safely use to lighten your hair (which is dead).  Don't put anything in your eyes without consulting a physician!

If you really want to find out whether there's something you can do to get your lighter eye color back, the best person to consult would be an ophthalmologist.  Who knows what they've got these days?  If all else fails...blue contacts!  ;)

I hope this helps.

Dana