Yellow/tan Skin

[Terri Lynn]

Hi- Have any of you noticed that your skin got yellow or tanish because of your celiac?

Mine is yellow on and off, and my doctor cant seem to figure it out. Ive been gluten free for about three months. Ive had several liver tests, and have had my vit A levels tested, and everything seems to be within normal range. It seems to get better if I work out or shower.

[missy'smom]

It sounds like something you should get to the bottom of. When I googled it this is the first link that came up and I noticed that some of the conditions listed are related to celiac disease.

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[little d]

It sounds like you need to get your liver levels checked that could be a sign of liver problems, or your bili rubin might be off a little. I know that my babies at work when there bili is high there skin turns orange which is not pretty. Or you could be eating too many carrots. But I would defiantly get your liver check that could be very serious.

donna

[nmw]

Addison's Disease which affects the adrenals can make your skin look tan or yellowish. Definitely get this checked out.

[SurreyGirl]

... It seems to get better if I work out or shower...

That is MOST interesting.. 2 year gluten-free and my son's test recently are still showing high billirubin and high blood urea... (explains the tan?). I have just been reading a book on nutrition and the author (Jan de Vries) talks about benefits of sweating when it comes to removing toxins, aiding liver and kidneys. Oh yes, and my son also has deficient pancreatic enzymes - it all makes sense now.

Does anyone know whether the liver/pancreas function can be restored in time?

[spunky]

When I first stopped gluten, it was in Feb...in a grimy, cloudy part of the country. People started complimenting my "tan" about two ro three months after I went gluten free.

That scared me...I was a weird color. I don't go to doctors, self-diagnosed for gluten, and was afraid something was going haywire somewhere in my body. I took milk thistle for a while, fearing my liver was messed up...then, by spring time, when the sun came back out and I COULD try for a tan, my strange "tan" out of nowhere faded away.

I don't know what caused it, but that was almost two years ago, and nothing bad happened to me, so my guess is that my body chemistry was changing in response to going gluten free and everything was off whack for a few months.

[Joanne11]

My mother gets a yellow/tan color to her skin after she eats orange veggies like squash. It took her years to figure out why she would sometimes look tan or yellow in the winter, and then she realized it was after she was eating squash. The beta carotine must effect her differently than most people. You still want to rule out anything with you liver since that seems like to most obvious thing, but thought I would just mention this.

[SurreyGirl]

.... I took milk thistle for a while...

thank you for mentioning this, spunky, I should have thought of it sooner!!

[DestinyLeah]

It is not at all uncommon for beta carotene to exit the body via the skin if you eat enough of it. Beta carotene is found in any yellow or orange veggies.

One thing about it: Exercise makes you sweat. Sweat is the method of exit for the beta carotene, along with many other extra vitamins and many toxins. It would get worse with the exercise.

That is not something you would notice with jaundice, as some exercise is supposed to make the effect less noticeable. Also, the color you would be going for in an adult with jaundice from liver or kidney issues is the very putrid yellow color you see in a healing bruise- caused by the breakdown of red blood cells and hemoglobins (bilirubin is produced, which in turn produces the color) , which is what causes jaundice in humans.

As for milk thistle: Clinical studies have shown that milk thistle has no effect on bilirubin levels in the body. Its possible side effects include GI issues (very common), migraines, and severe allergic reaction.

Only your doctor can find out for sure what is going on, but if your blood panels are normal, then I would guess you eat lots of veggies.

Quick questions:

Is your urine darker than usual, and somewhat orange, too?

Are the whites of your eyes yellow?

Researched with Yahoo & Google (I hate Google)

[jewels1961]

It sounds like something you should get to the bottom of. When I googled it this is the first link that came up and I noticed that some of the conditions listed are related to celiac disease.

Open Original Shared Link

I agree with "missys mom" to have this checked into. My mother had scleroderma and always looked like she had been in a tanning bed all year round, "scleroderma" is also an auto imminune disease with no cure.