How Does Bilirubin Metabolism - unconjugated and conjugated bilirubin Work?

Bilirubin is like a tiny yellow crayon that our body uses to clean up old cells.

When our body gets rid of old red blood cells, they release bilirubin, which is like the leftover crayon bits. This bilirubin is called unconjugated bilirubin, it’s like the messy pile of crayon shavings on the floor.

Then, in the liver, our body does a little cleanup job. It takes the unconjugated bilirubin and adds some special helpers (like a glue stick) to make it into conjugated bilirubin, which is easier to get out of the body. This is like taking the crayon shavings, gluing them together, and making little crayon balls you can roll up and throw away.

These conjugated bilirubin balls then travel through our bile into the intestines, where they’re eventually passed out as part of our poop, just like how we get rid of crayon bits at the end of a drawing session.

If something goes wrong in this process, it can cause the skin or eyes to look yellow, like if all the crayons spilled everywhere!