# Overweight People With Yellow Around Eyes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707 "2009-12-18T03:20:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Incref](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@Incref](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incref)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/1 "2009-12-18T03:20:00Z")
I have a couple of friends who are quite overweight, both are female, one is in her mid twenties the other early thirties, both carry their weight solidly and around the mid section. The thing I have noticed about both of them is that they have yellowing around their eyelids, kind of like the circles you get when tired but a different colour (it’s a definite yellow) and it effects the top eyelids too. What could this be? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/2 "2009-12-18T04:14:19Z")
Fat as I am, glad I don’t have the yellow. Recall a news thing about it indicating high cholesterol, but don’t have it offhand. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/3 "2009-12-18T05:24:15Z")
I can’t find any good pictures of [xanthomas](http://www.skinsite.com/info_xanthomas.htm) on the eyelids, but that’s likely what you’re noticing. They are cholesterol deposits. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/4 "2009-12-18T05:42:44Z")
So you don’t have to be overweight to have the problem? ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/5 "2009-12-18T09:22:20Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I can’t find any good pictures of [xanthomas](http://www.skinsite.com/info_xanthomas.htm) on the eyelids, but that’s likely what you’re noticing. They are cholesterol deposits. Those don’t look like the OPs description though do they? Or do they sometimes show as a general yellowing? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/6 "2009-12-18T09:46:28Z")
I have a friend who’s recently given birth. She’s not obese at all, just carrying a bit of baby-weight, but has the same thing round her eyes. I heard “kidney problem” once regarding the (Chris) Patten family, but no cite nor confidence in that claim. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/7 "2009-12-18T14:13:13Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > So you don’t have to be overweight to have the problem? No, my mother was underweight most of her life and had a pretty good case of xanthomas. She also had a hereditary disorder that screwed up her body’s ability to process cholesterol. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/8 "2009-12-18T19:13:30Z")
Do they have [Jaundice](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaundice)? Yellowing of the sclera/eyes is often the first signs of it. Very mild forms of it/ early stages of it can have just the rims being yellow: [example](http://www.ba8.org/rasm/zardwe.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Incref](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f17d59/32.png) [@Incref](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incref)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/9 "2009-12-19T03:10:39Z")
> [@ToeJam](#): > > Do they have [Jaundice](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaundice)? > Yellowing of the sclera/eyes is often the first signs of it. > > Very mild forms of it/ early stages of it can have just the rims being yellow: [example](http://www.ba8.org/rasm/zardwe.jpg) I thought it might be to start with, but the white of their eyes are very, well, white. I was looking a couple of pictures of them and the yellow is more like the colour a bruise turns after it is almost heal. It definitely doesn’t look like those fatty deposit things earlier mentioned. Maybe it’s just a coincidence and they both have eyes that easily look tired? I can’t really recall ever consistently noticing something like that in a person though. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2009, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/overweight-people-with-yellow-around-eyes/521707/10 "2009-12-19T03:11:41Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > I can’t find any good pictures of [xanthomas](http://www.skinsite.com/info_xanthomas.htm) on the eyelids, but that’s likely what you’re noticing. They are cholesterol deposits. How about [this image](http://dermatology.cdlib.org/123/case_presentations/xanthoma/1.jpg).