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,
Jaundice for bilirubin due to their high elastin content. The presence of scleral icterus indicates a serum bilirubin of at least 3 mg/dL. The conjunctiva of the eye are one of the first tissues to change color as bilirubin levels rise in jaundice. This is sometimes referred to as "scleral icterus". The sclera themselves are not "icteric" (stained with bile pigment), however, but rather the conjunctival membranes that overlie them. The yellowing of the "white of the eye" is thus more properly termed "conjunctival icterus". The term "icterus" itself is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to jaundice that is noted in