5) Yellowing of the skin (jaundice)
The bile contains a substance called bilirubin, which is a waste substance of the human metabolism. Bilirubin has a characteristic yellowish color, and when a gallstone gets stuck in the bile duct, the bile –and the bilirubin within the bile- starts to flow backward to the liver cells, which are directly connected to the bloodstream.
Traveling backwards, the bilirubin starts to run through the bloodstream, changing the color of the skin and mucosa as it gets deposited in these tissues. This turns the skin into a yellowish color, which is called jaundice. It is important to differentiate jaundice from a normal yellowish skin that results from consuming too much food with carotenoids (another pigment in foods such as carrots). Both of them feature a yellowish skin, but only jaundice would cause a yellowish appearance in the white portion of the eyes.
