Jaundice

🌿 Overview

Jaundice is not a disease itself but a sign of liver overload. When the liver cannot process bilirubin (the yellow-brown substance from red blood cell breakdown), it accumulates throughout the body. Causes include hepatitis, cirrhosis, gallstones, tumors, and pernicious anemia. The liver is the main seat of the problem; bile is not excreted properly and passes into the bloodstream, causing a toxic condition. Carrot juice that clears the yellow from the skin is a sign the liver is healing.

Common signs

• Whites of the eyes (sclera) turn yellow first
• Then mucous membranes, then skin takes on a gold cast
• Urine becomes darker; stools become light clay or chalky in color
• Bile deposits in skin cause itching
• Sluggishness, fatigue, constipation, upset stomach
• Chills, vomiting, and fever in acute cases

🔎 Why it happens

Common causes and triggers — spotting yours is often the first step to relief.

• Liver disease: hepatitis, cirrhosis (bile not excreted properly)
• Gallstones or tumor blocking the bile ducts
• Pernicious anemia or abnormal destruction of red blood cells (hemolysis)
• Parasitic infestation: tapeworm, hookworm, flea, or mosquito-carried viral infection
• Improper diet deranging the function of stomach, liver, and bowels

✅ What to do

Gentle, practical steps you can take at home — start at the top.

1. As long as fever continues: drink a glass of water with lemon juice every hour
2. Goldenseal or echinacea teaA warm drink made by steeping herbs in hot water. How to make a tea → (1 cup, 1 hour before each meal, 3 times daily)
3. Eat only raw fruits and vegetables for one week; then 75% raw foods for a month
4. Drink fresh vegetable juices; fresh lemons daily during treatment
5. Liver flush: drink apple juice alone for 3 days, then drink 1 cup olive oil and 1 cup lemon juice — cleans out bile ducts; only needs to be done once
6. VitaminA natural substance your body needs in small amounts to stay healthy, like vitamin C or D. More → C to bowel tolerance; vitamins A, E, and selenium
7. Silymarin (milk thistle extract): 150 mg capsules, 3–4 times daily — helps repair liver damage
8. UV light exposure to speed elimination
9. Carrot juice: watch for skin clearing from yellow back to normal — sign liver is healing
10. Helpful liver herbs: barberry, dandelion, agrimony, mandrake root, self-heal, yarrow, burdock root, red clover, licorice, celandine, chionanthus
11. Dr. Christopher's formula: 4 oz. ginger syrupA sweet, thick herbal liquid that soothes the throat. How to make a syrup →, 1 oz. each of butternut and boneset extracts; 1 tsp. 3–4 times daily
12. For skin itching: wash with hot boric acid water

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🍽️ Eating to help

Food is one of the gentlest medicines — small, steady changes help most.

Favor these

• Fresh lemon juice and water every hour (during fever)
• Raw fruit and vegetable diet (first week)
• Fresh vegetable juices
• Carrot juice (tracks liver recovery)
• Apple juice (liver flush prep)
• Goldenseal and echinacea teas

Go easy on

• All alcohol and tobacco — very hard on the liver
• Meat, fish (especially undercooked)
• Sugar, fat, processed and junk foods
• Milk and dairy products
• Stimulants

Both alcohol and tobacco are extremely damaging to the liver. Jaundice from gallstones may require the liver flush (olive oil and lemon juice). Treat underlying cause — hepatitis, cirrhosis, gallstones — simultaneously.

💬 Ask Remy about Jaundice