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UseaJoystick t1_ircurlr wrote

Reply to comment by Lopsided_Chicken400 in What happens when a bruise heals? by DwagonFyre

The human body is fascinating. Recycling dead RBCs into Iron for presumably new RBCs, and the remainder into bile for enhanced digestion. The body really knows how to use everything to its fullest extent.

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Lopsided_Chicken400 t1_ird4i9l wrote

The bilirubin in the bile isn't the part that aids in digestion. Bile is a mixture of quite a few things. Some of those things, like bilirubin, are wastes that the body is eliminating in the feces. Other components are functional.

One of the functional components of bile is bile salts. Bile salts are produced in the liver and they aid in digestion by emulsifying fats. Emulsification is important because it makes it easier for the enzymes that digest the fat (lipases from the pancreas, mainly) to access it.

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Kirk_Kerman t1_ird3bru wrote

They're called salvage pathways. It's a lot less energetically expensive to recycle.

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