When they are turning yellow? Does it have something to do w/the liver?
(he has cancer)
If you’ve ever had a bruise, you may have noticed that the skin went through a series of color changes as it healed. When you saw yellow in the bruise, you were seeing bilirubin.
Normally, about 1% of our red blood cells retire every day, to be replaced by fresh red blood cells. The old ones are handled by the liver. Bilirubin is left after blood cells are disposed of. It leaves the body in the stool.
When too much bilirubin (yellow pigment) builds up in the body, jaundice may result.
Jaundice can be caused by:
Too many red blood cells retiring for the liver to handle
The liver being overloaded or damaged
The bilirubin from the liver is unable to move through the biliary tract to the gut
The skin may turn a yellow-to-orange color if you ingest too much beta carotene, the orange pigment in carrots. In this condition, the whites of the eyes remain white. People with true jaundice often have a yellowish tinge to the eyes. This condition is called hypercarotenemia, or just carotenemia.
