Is yellowing of the skin necessarily a liver disease? Teach you 3 tricks to quickly identify real and fake jaundice!

Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes is a typical symptom of jaundice, which is caused by increased serum bilirubin levels in the body, resulting in jaundice in the skin, mucous membranes, and sclera. Jaundice is also a major feature of liver disease, but not all jaundice is necessarily liver disease and can be caused by other problems.

How can you tell if jaundice is real or fake?

1. Look at your eyes

If the hands or skin are obviously yellow, you should look at the eyes in the mirror and carefully observe the whites of the eyes, which indicate that the whites of the eyes are really jaundice.

2. The eyes are not yellow, check the recent diet

Just the yellowing of the hands and skin, and the normal whites of the eyes, may be related to diet, especially eating a lot of carotene-containing foods, such as pumpkin, mango, oranges and carrots. In this case, there is no need to worry, adjust your diet and drink plenty of water to relieve it.

3. Whether it is accompanied by symptoms

Yellowing of the skin, accompanied by general fatigue, liver qi discomfort, abdominal pain and decreased appetite, especially for patients with viral infection, recent medication, heavy alcohol consumption and cholelithiasis, should seek medical examination as soon as possible, and confirm the diagnosis through abdominal ultrasound and liver function tests.

What causes jaundice?

1. Hepatocellular jaundice

After a large number of hepatocytes are damaged, it can affect the normal uptake, binding and excretion of bilirubin, and increase the content of unconjugated bilirubin in the blood. In addition, due to the damage to the liver cells and the destruction of the lobular structure of the liver, the conjugated bilirubin cannot enter the small bile ducts, and the conjugated bilirubin will return to the bloodstream, resulting in jaundice.

2. Hemolytic jaundice

Hemolytic jaundice is caused by a hematologic disorder, and acute attacks are prone to headache, dizziness, anemia and splenomegaly, elevated body temperature, and dark brown or soy sauce-colored urine. Routine blood tests may reveal a low red blood cell count, active bone marrow hyperplasia, and an increased number of reticulocytes.

3. Cholestatic jaundice

Hepatocytes secrete bile, which travels from the bile ducts into the duodenum. Biliary obstruction or biliary stricture can affect bile drainage, increase the pressure in the biliary tract, promote bile duct dilation, and bile can easily flow into the bloodstream in reverse, resulting in jaundice. In addition to yellowish skin, these patients also have itchy skin, dark yellow urine, and white clay-colored stools.

Tips

Yellowing of the skin, yellowing of the eyes and yellowing of the skin caused by dietary factors is excluded for a long time, accompanied by physical discomfort, and further medical examination is required. We should take good care of our liver, maintain regular work and rest and adequate sleep, pay attention to a light and diversified diet, strictly control alcohol intake, maintain peace of mind, and eliminate bad emotions in time. Drugs should not be abused in daily life, especially not in combination with drugs, so as not to lead to drug-induced liver damage or liver failure.