Cholalemia

In medical parlance, the term cholalemia refers to a increased bile acids in the blood.

Bile Acids - What Are They?

These substances are produced by the liver and poured into the bile, then concentrated by the gallbladder and poured into the small intestine; once in the duodenum, the bile acids participate in the formation of micelles facilitating the digestion of dietary lipids.

Bile acids are synthesized starting from cholesterol, and once poured into the small intestine they are largely reabsorbed and returned to the liver, to be recycled and secreted again in the bile.

Causes

Under normal conditions, the concentrations of bile acids in the blood are very low, but they can increase considerably when the liver is unable to pour the bile produced into the intestine, due to the presence of obstructions; typical is the case of gallstones of the biliary tract, presence of tumor masses in the biliary tract or in the head of the pancreas, sclerosing cholangitis, biliary cirrhosis, intrahepatic cholestasis associated with pregnancy, etc.

In these circumstances, we speak precisely of cholalemia, while the medical term cholemia indicates an increase in bilirubin in the blood.

Bilirubin is another characteristic component of bile, for which the two conditions are often (but not necessarily) associated (usually in the presence of cholalemia there is also cholemia, but not the other way around).

Cholalemia and cholemia cause severe itching of the skin, jaundice, drop in blood pressure with dizziness, headache, strong-smelling sweating, depression, apathy and mood changes.