Having a reddish brown tinge code#

This causes fluid to build up in different areas, which may get coughed up as white sputum.īlack phlegm is often a sign of inhaling something like dust, which traditionally affected coal miners. Gastro reflux can also cause people to cough up thick, white sputum.Īs can COPD, which makes the airways narrow and the lungs produce an abnormal amount of mucus.Ĭongestive heart failure is another culprit, which occurs when the heart gradually loses its ability to pump blood around the body. White phlegm can be a sign of viral bronchitis and may progress into yellow-green mucus. Whatever the cause, brown phlegm should always prompt a visit to the GP, particularly if accompanied by a prolonged cough. In severe cases, brown mucus can even be a sign of a lung abscess, which is a painful collection of pus that is usually caused by a bacterial infection. Inhaling dangerous substances, like asbestos, can also cause incurable lung disease that leads to brown phlegm. This can occur after producing sputum that was red or pink.Īs well as being a sign of bacterial pneumonia, brown phlegm can also be due to chronic bronchitis, which often affects smokers, and cystic fibrosis. Pneumonia and cystic fibrosis sufferers also often produce mucus that ranges from yellow and green to brown and red.īrown phlegm that appears 'rusty' is often a sign of old blood in the mucus. 'If you have COPD then there is a good chance it means you have a bacterial infections because people with COPD are much more likely to have bacteria living on their lungs, and that may mean you need antibiotics,' GP Dr Sarah Jarvis told The Sun. Lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which cause difficulty breathing, may also be to blame. However, more serious infections such as bronchitis and sinusitis can also create phlegm of a similar hue.

This mucus, also known as sputum, usually starts off as yellow and gradually turns green. So you don't have to be young and ginger to have a red beard, but it certainly helps.Green-yellow stained phlegm is usually a sign your body is fighting an infection, such as a cold. The phenomenon also occurs in some men as they age - usually as they pass their 40th birthday, which is probably because the pigment-producing cells in scalp hair and beard hair age at different rates, Jablonski said. In other words, the same gene is behaving differently in different parts of the body and that's probably because there's just a single mutation of the MC1R gene, rather than a double mutation - meaning that the person is effectively a carrier of the redhead gene. 'This will almost certainly be due to the differential expression of MC1R in the follicles of beard hair versus scalp hair resulting in the production of a different mixture of dark brown eumelanin and yellow-red pheomelanin,' Jablonski said. So, what happens when a person has a red beard, paired with a brown head of hair? The answer has some curious genetics at play, according to Jablonski.

But if a person has a double mutation in this gene, its resulting proteins aren't as effective, which lead to red locks.

Having a reddish brown tinge code#

One role of the MC1R gene is to code for a protein called melanocortin, whose job is to convert the red pigment into the black one. And redheads, of course, have mostly pheomelanin. Blonds, meanwhile, have less of both types of pigment than their darker-haired and redheaded friends. People with black or dark brown hair will probably have only eumelanin, or at least it will be the dominant pigment. Hair color is determined by the ratio of two different pigments eumelanin is responsible for black tones and pheomelanin causes red ones.