Brown spots-age spots or liver spots they are sometimes called-are the result of sun exposure. Large, flat brown spots on your face and hands may be called age spots or liver spots. Many fair-skinned people develop them in middle age from an accumulation of pigment (color) in the skin.

The following remedies may not produce instant results. Keep in mind that these brown spots, thought to be caused by sun damage or a nutrition deficiency, took years to form. Give the remedy you use a few months to work. Then, if there's no change, try another remedy. It may take some trial and error to find what works best for you.

Natural home remedies
Grate an onion and squeeze it through cheesecloth so that you have 1 teaspoon of onion juice. Mix it with 2 teaspoons of vinegar and massage the brown spots with this liquid. Do it daily-twice a day, if possible-until you no longer see spots in front of your eyes.

This special remedy calls for chickpeas. You may know them as garbanzo beans, ceci or arbus. If you don't want to prepare them from scratch, buy canned chickpeas. Mash about 1/3 cup and add a little water. Smear the paste on the brown spots and leave it there until it dries and starts crumbling off. Then wash it off completely. Do this every evening.

Once a day, swallow a vitamin E capsule (check with your doctor for amount). In addition, at bedtime, puncture an E capsule, squish out the oil and rub it on the brown spots, leaving it on overnight. Wear white cotton gloves to avoid messing up your sheets. A variation of this remedy is to rub on castor oil and take the vitamin E orally.