berliniam

berliniam t1_j9qzfm0 wrote

Breakdown of red blood cells results in bilirubin which gets stored in your gallbladder. It then gets excreted into your intestines and converted a couple times to end up in two “exit” forms: stercobilin (which gives your stool it’s brown color) and urobilinogen which ends up in your bladder and peed out. This urobilinogen oxidizes with air once you pee and converts to urobilin which has a yellow color! People with gallbladder biliary blockages or liver disease which prevents the breakdown excretion of bilirubin may actually have near-pigmentless stool (acholic stool)

The other pigments in your food like from a strawberry or steak are more likely to be broken down in your intestines and excreted as poop (which is already pretty brown so color changes are less perceptible) or end up as colorless contributors to your urine. Beets are a strong example of a pigment that some folks can’t breakdown as well so it gets excreted in both stool and urine and giving a pink or red hue.

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