Jaundice refers to reduced liver function and is characterized by a yellowish skin color, which also taints the whites of the eyes. Neonatal jaundice is a common condition that affects nearly half of all newborn babies. Most jaundice in newborn babies is a normal event and is not serious, disappearing after a few days without any special treatment. Once this type of jaundice disappears, there is no evidence that it will appear again or that it has any lasting effects on the baby.

The symptoms of Jaundice include prolonged uncontrollable vomiting, fever, lethargy, weakness and double vision, paralysis, hearing loss, speech impairment, delirium, seizures etc.

Physiologic jaundice is a normal occurrence and probably not preventable. Prevention of disease-related jaundice is related to the specific disease.

It is usually contagious for 2 to 3 weeks before symptoms appear and for 2 to 3 weeks afterward. During this period, others can pick up the virus by touching anything contaminated with the blood, stool, saliva, and possibly other body fluids of an infected person. An injection of immune (gamma) globulin is usually given right after you have been exposed to contaminated food, have had contact with an infected person, or before possible exposure to hepatitis A (such as before travel to an area where the disease is common). Immune globulin may not always prevent hepatitis A, but it may make it milder. The protection lasts only for a few weeks.

The diagnosis for Jaundice is quite easy at times. The symptoms themselves usually show that the patient is suffering from jaundice. The yellow color of the skin points easily to the patients deteriorating condition.

Protein restricted diets are often prescribed in patients with liver disease. In patients with cirrhosis, decreased hepatic function and encephalopathy, such an approach can be justified. However, protein requirement in the cirrhotic hypercatabolic state are increased over those of patients without liver disease. Protein restriction may contribute to malnutrition and poor outcome in these patients. Avoidance of animal protein in preference to vegetable sources has been shown to minimize encephalopathy.
1) Diets high in branch-chained amino acids may actually provide a survival benefit in patients with cirrhosis.
2) The situation in patients with chronic non-cirrhotic liver disease is less clear. Besides suggesting a well-balanced diet and avoidance of alcohol, little evidence is available to provide such patients with meaningful and specified dietary advice.
The simple form of jaundice can be cured rapidly by diet therapy and exercises. Recovery will, however, be slow in serious cases which have been caused by obstruction or pressure in the bile ducts. The patient should rest until the acute symptoms of the disease subside.
The patient should be put on a juice fast for a week. The juices of oranges, lemons, grapes, pears, carrots, beets and sugarcane can be taken. A hot water enema should be taken daily during this period to ensure regular bowel elimination, thereby preventing the absorption of decomposed, poisonous material into the blood stream. The juice fast may be continued till the acute symptoms subside.
After the juice fast, the patient may adopt an all-fruit diet for further three to five days. In this regimen, he should have three meals a day of fresh juicy fruits such as apples, pears, grapes, oranges, and pineapples, but no bananas. Thereafter a simple diet may be resumed on the following lines:

Upon arising: A glass of warm water with juice of half a lemon.

Breakfast: One fresh juicy fruit such as apple, pear, mango, papaya, or some grapes, or berries. One cup wheat dalia or one slice of whole meal bread with a little butter.

Mid-morning: Orange or pear juice. 

Lunch: Raw vegetable salad, two small chappatis of whole wheat flour, a steamed leafy vegetable such as spinach, methi saag or carrot and a glass of butter-milk.

Mid-afternoon: Coconut water or apple juice.

Dinner: One cup strained vegetable soup, two chappatis of whole meal, baked potato and one other leafy vegetable like methi, spinach, etc.

Before retiring: A glass of hot skimmed milk with honey if desired.

All fats like ghee, butter, cream and oils must be avoided for atleast two weeks, and after that butter and olive oil may be included in the diet but their consumption should be kept down to the minimum. A light carbohydrate diet, with exclusion of fats, best obtained from vegetables and fruits should be taken.
The patient should take plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit juices. Dandelion leaves, radishes with leaves, endive should be added to the daily raw vegetable salad. Raw apples and pears are especially beneficial. Barley water, drunk several times during the day, is considered a good remedy for jaundice. One cup of barley should be boiled in six pints of water and simmered for three hours.

Jaundice still remains a frightening disease. Modern medicine offers advanced treatment for jaundice, yet traditional methods score over modern medicine in the treatment for jaundice. Everyone knows that for jaundice the diet must be immediately changed. All fats should be completely cut out from the diet. For this we have to give a plenty of fruit juices, especially sugarcane juice. White radish juice with a teaspoon full of honey twice a day very useful to control the toxemia of infection. Take a litter of water add to it two teaspoon full of coriander seeds and an equal quantity of white cumin and fistful of black berries of manattakkali. Leave the mixture overnight. In the morning take a glass of this infusion sweetened with palm candy. Repeat twice or thrice for a week or too. Urination increases, fewer comes down, yellow coloration gradually reduces and the patient's condition improves. Twice a day take a decoction made with white radish, karisha-langanni leaves (Mocchkand in hindi) neem leaves and flowers and red hibiscus(or shoe flower). All the above ingredients are boiled in about a pint of water and concentrate to half the volume. This should be taken two or three doses daily. Mash a ripe banana along with 1-tablespoon honey and eat twice a day for a few days. Frequently intake limejuice. Take ¼ teaspoon turmeric (haldi) along with a glass of hot water 2 or 3 times daily. ½ teaspoon ginger juice with 1 teaspoon each fresh lime and mint (pudina) juice mixed with a tablespoon of honey, taken frequently. Finely grind some bel leaves. Take 1 teaspoon of this paste along with a pinch of black pepper and follow it with 1 cup of buttermilk thrice a day. A fine paste of tender papaya leaves, about ½ teaspoon paste, is taken with some water. Pour over a handful of lime leaves in 1 cup hot water and take the infusion. Make a fine powder of 1 teaspoon each crushed liquorice (mulathi) root, chicory seeds (kaasni) and rock salt (kala namak). Take ½ teaspoon with water twice daily.

Some of the various diseases that can cause jaundice are anemia, congestion in the circulatory system, pneumonia, congenital liver abnormalities, degeneration of the liver cells by poisons or infectious organisms, scarring of the liver tissue (cirrhosis), and obstructions or tumors in the liver, bile ducts, and the head of the pancreas. In a type of jaundice of unknown cause, called idiopathic jaundice, there seems to be a metabolic error in the body. There are a number of causes of jaundice. The best therapy is to follow the treatment prescribed. In young people, jaundice is most frequently due to viral hepatitis or alcohol abuse. In older people, malignancies are a more common cause. Premature infants may develop jaundice due to increased hemolysis and immature liver cells that contain insufficient enzymes to process bilirubin properly. Jaundice itself is not toxic except in newborns. Since their blood-brain barrier is not fully functional, bilirubin can pass into the brain and cause damage. In adults, two of the most common causes of jaundice are viral liver infection known as hepatitis, and alcohol. Alcohol does not cause this condition unless it is abused. Many cases of jaundice cannot be prevented.

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