Jaundice Vitamin D production. Bilirubin count is lowered through bowel movements and urination, so frequent and effective feedings are especially important. Yellow discoloration of the skin, especially on the palms and the soles, but not of the sclera or inside the mouth is due to carotenemia—a harmless condition. Jaundice itself is not a disease, but rather a sign of one of many possible underlying pathological processes that occur at some point along the normal physiological pathway of the metabolism of bilirubin in blood. When red blood cells have completed their life span of approximately 120 days, or when they are damaged,
Eye color both are localized in Chromosome 15. The gene "OCA2" (), when in a variant form, causes the pink eye color and hypopigmentation common in human albinism. (The name of the gene is derived from the disorder it causes, oculocutaneous albinism type II.) Different SNPs within "OCA2" are strongly associated with blue and green eyes as well as variations in freckling, mole counts, hair and skin tone. The polymorphisms may be in an "OCA2" regulatory sequence, where they may influence the expression of the gene product, which in turn affects pigmentation. A specific mutation within the "HERC2" gene, a gene that