Everyone knows that varying amounts of melanin in the skin produces different tones of brown - however, what causes the red or yellow pigmentations also present in varying degrees? (excl. illness and other environmental effects)
natural pigments? Cause silver turns you blue and eating a lot (A LOT) of carrots turns you orange (at least it did my hands)
If that is the case I eat A LOT of strawberries, which would mean I should be turning red Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think I know, it is when you are a child and you eat those crayons, yes, that's how its done. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Maybe it was caused by vitamin A. Did any of the other symptons of vitamin A toxicity appear? Nausea, vomitting, strong headaches, seeing double, sleepyness, loss of hair, aching bones... ?
Yes beta carotene (vegetable source of vitamin A) can cause yellow pigmentation of the skin. Unlike animal sources of vitamin A however, it is less toxic. In fact, I haven't heard of anyone getting vitamin A toxicity from beta carotene
I found the answer, unsurprisingly, on Wikipedia. For those that are interested, there're different types of melanin: Eumelanin : Two types: black and brown (or grey and blonde, respectively, when alone in small quantities). Pheomelanin : Red/Pink pigment. Women tend to have more. Causes gingerism. Also concentrated in rude places (in addition to colouration from blood supply). Neuromelanin : very dark, in some brain cells, no known function
yep, that's what happened. I always wondered if anything would happen if I ate a bunch of beets. But I don't like them, so I never did. Anyways, they had a person in the clinic on House that had this problem; ate too many carrots and skin changed color.
I haven't read it, but I expect (since melanin is a mixture of subcomponents) that there are plenty of allele's that introduce more variance as with eye colour.
After thinking about this I've come to another conclusion. Those "people" with different colors aren't really from Earth after all and are really aliens from distant worlds here on vacation of some sort. They try to blend into the human population but are easily recognized as "different" but have the excuse that its their melanin not their origin. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
you could be right. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The color of beets is not from carotenoids (which are fat soluble) but from betalains which are water soluble. And most people can break down betalains. So while eating a lot of carrots can give you a healthy glow, eating a lot of beets would only give you reddish pee and pinkish turds if and only if you lack the enzyme to break it down.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
