What Is Hemoglobin?
4. Breaking It Down
Our red blood cells have a life of around 120 days. When they do come to the end of their lives, they will need to be broken down so they can be removed from the body and replaced by fresh blood cells. When the red blood cells are broken down, so is the hemoglobin inside. Our red blood cells, and the hemoglobin, is broken down by our livers. This produces a yellow by-product known as bilirubin that is then broken down by the liver.
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When somebody has liver problems that prevent this yellow substance being broken down, more of it is likely to appear in the blood than usual. This will cause us to take on a yellow tinge in a condition known as jaundice.
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