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Symptoms, Their Causes & Cures: Jaundice

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Jaundice

WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR

* Your skin and the whites of your eyes turn yellow.

What Your Symptom Is Telling You

Whoa! What's that you see in the bathroom mirror? A slight yellow/green tinge to the whites of your eyes and your skin? It's a sunny day and the shade is up. You look a little closer. The color change is definitely there . . . and it's definitely upsetting.

There are a couple of things that can give the skin a yellowish tinge--eating too many carrots for example. But only true jaundice turns the skin and the whites of the eyes yellow and even makes urine a dark

Actually, this color change can be good news if you act on it. That's because jaundice is your body's way of alerting you to a liver infection or blockage of your bile duct. Normally, your gallbladder sends a continual supply of dark-colored bile through a bile duct to your liver to help you digest fats. Sometimes a gallstone (a hardened piece of cholesterol) or a growth blocks the bile duct, forcing bile into your bloodstream. Then bile's dark color starts to show up in the skin and eyes.

"It's as if a dye that's supposed to be going into your gut begins traveling through your system," says Samuel Labow, M.D., president of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons and a private practitioner in Great Neck, New York. "And it shows up by coloring your skin, eyes and urine." You may also experience abdominal pain, he says.

Hepatitis, which causes painful liver inflammation, can also cause jaundice, says Dr. Labow.

Symptom Relief

While jaundice itself doesn't directly threaten your health, it is a sign of something that needs medical attention.

Expect medications or tests. If your doctor suspects hepatitis, you may be placed on a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet for the duration of the disease. If liver infection is not in the picture, your doctor will perform a number of diagnostic tests to find out what is blocking the flow of bile from the liver. Gallstones or a tumor have to be removed surgically.

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