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The Fugate family of Kentucky has had blue skin for centuries
- jquery 7y agoOnce I donated blood and it came out green! Everyone was astonished. No idea why to this day, any ideas? Blood is back to its normal red color. Wasn’t taking any medications or feeling ill.
- lscharen 7y agoI believe sulfates in the blood can cause it to turn green. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfhemoglobinemia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfhemoglobinemia
- jquery 7y agoThanks! I wonder what caused my sulfates to rise. Maybe something I ate, or an infection without symptoms that I noticed. Or perhaps I did take a medication and I don't remember. Or just something genetic. Thanks for sharing, because it looks like it's not something I need to worry about because my blood quickly went back to red.
- mkl 7y agoA fascinating article, but it's a bit frustrating that there are no colour photos. I tried searching the internet and found photos of other blue-skinned people but none of them had this genetic cause (mostly it was silver "supplements").
- beambot 7y agohttps://historycollection.co/the-fugate-family-of-kentucky-had-blue-skin-for-generations/3/ https://historycollection.co/the-fugate-family-of-kentucky-h...
- flatline 7y agoDon't visit that site if you value your scrollbar or browser history...
- qxcmptr 7y agohttps://cdn.historycollection.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screen-Shot-2019-01-01-at-10.05.14-AM.png https://cdn.historycollection.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/... For everyone that just wants to see the image
- wruza 7y agoI was curious why and tapped it. It spams back button history so quickly that you cannot return to HN anymore. Open in new tab if interested.
- sildur 7y agoDoesn’t seem to do anything on IPhone’s safari.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- smhg 7y agoThe internet seems to suggest this is Luna Fugate: https://cdn.mutually.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2-9.jpg https://cdn.mutually.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2-9.jpg If so, according to the family tree, this would be the last homozygous member of the Fugate family.
- arcticbull 7y agoThere's photos out there if you google for "autosomal recessive methemoglobinemia" -- for instance "Papa Smurf" [1] I just think it's super cool if you administer methylene blue dye, they turn back to normal within a half hour. [1] https://abcnews.go.com/Health/internet-sensation-papa-smurf-dies-blue-people-live/story?id=20368758 https://abcnews.go.com/Health/internet-sensation-papa-smurf-...
- smhg 7y agoYou are mixing up 2 things. Paul Karason had a syndrome called 'argyria' from dietary supplements. The article you link mentions that. The Fugate family has the methemoglobinemia condition. They can be 'cured' with methylene blue. The former could not.
- arcticbull 7y agoYep, you're totally right, not sure how I missed that. The article makes mention of the Fugates and some other folks with the condition.
- Pfhreak 7y agoIs this article a carnival sideshow? "<Family/Individual> had <unusual genetic disease you're unlikely to ever encounter> that caused <visible differences from other humans>" I get it, we like to look at situations where people are different, but does this actually inform, educate, or improve us by reading? Or is this article just a chance to point out some people who are different. I've been thinking about this recently, and trying to moderate my curiosity (because blue skin certainly piques my curiosity) against what I'm trying to get out of the article and what the people in the article get out of the article. Is the Fugate's family improved by this? What about other people with methemoglobinemia? Are their lives improved? Another way to think of it is, who benefits from this? Who is being put on display? Edit: I ask because I think these are important questions to ask, and because I genuinely have a difficult time telling sometimes. It's useful to see responses of how others interpret this.
- irrational 7y agoWell, if I saw someone that had blue skin (from the comments we know that there are still blue skinned people around), I'd probably be extremely curious, stare, ask awkward questions in my head, etc. But now I know, from reading the article, that it's just a blood issue and it no longer seems strange.
- Pfhreak 7y agoSure. That makes sense. I can definitely see the value for more common issues someone is likely to run into in their lives. Do you think that was the intent of the author?
- echelon 7y agoThis article is biologically fascinating! It detailed the genetics and the biochemistry involved, but also included a rich history of those affected. It's a synthesis of things that interest us. Alzheimer's, cancer, and other disease states are also hugely interesting. That's one of the reasons people study them (in addition to the desire to save and improve lives). Human stories often intersect with biology. Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa cell line...
- nishnik 7y agoWhy was the color blue chosen by evolution?
- maxerbubba 7y agoThat's not how evolution works... random variation, sometimes detrimental, will sometimes lead to advantage
- monocasa 7y agoSometimes both. Sickle cell anemia gives you slightly better odds of surviving malaria for instance.
- mruts 7y agoSickle cell anemia is Mendelian and recessive. So if 2 carriers (Rr and Rr) have kids, 50% of the children will be strictly superior (carriers), 25% will be normal, and 25% will die young. Not a bad outcome, especially if you have a lot of kids to reduce the variance.
- kbenson 7y ago> 50% of the children will be strictly superior (carriers) Is that domain nomenclature? Because I wouldn't call having to be careful who procreate with otherwise risk losing 25% of my children from that relationship as "strictly superior"...
- rangibaby 7y ago2/4 resistant to malaria with no side effects and 1/4 dying is much much better than 4/4 dying from malaria
- wespiser_2018 7y agopretty good considering something like half of all human beings who ever lived died of Malaria!
- porknubbins 7y agoSome real gems in this article- “I’m kin to myself” and “she was as blue a woman as I ever saw” (how many blue people have you seen?)
- floatingatoll 7y agoIf you’ve seen a lot of people who are hypothermic or recently dead of same, then haven’t you seen a lot of blue people?
- darepublic 7y agoI think that is meant in humour
- jgrowl 7y agoYeah, she's saying that they're the bluest person they've ever seen because they haven't seen any other blue people. Source: My family comes from Harlan, KY and I have Fugate relatives.
- ComputerGuru 7y ago> The Fugates he treated ingested this dye and within a few minutes, the blue coloration of their skin disappeared, and their skin turned pink. Really? Within a few minutes?? Nitpick aside, such an interesting article! The world is such a big and interesting place!
- p1esk 7y agoMore amazing (to me) was that a doctor actually solved this problem effectively. A few times that I went to doctors with minor problems in the last decade, they usually had no clue what's wrong (they even admitted it), but prescribed antibiotics.
- J5892 7y agoI imagine the biggest challenge your doctors faced was diagnosis. It's a lot easier to treat someone when you can diagnose them at a glance.
- p1esk 7y agoBlue skin is a symptom, not a diagnosis. I doubt the doctor who saw him could immediately diagnose it, however he didn’t give up and cracked that case eventually (and even found the cure!)
- J5892 7y agoWell yeah. I was simplifying a bit. The doctor would have to do a bit of research, but being such a rare symptom, achieving a diagnosis for blue skin would be much easier than reaching a single diagnosis from something like chest pain.
- ianai 7y agoBlood circulates much faster than may be obvious. It’s entirely possible that’s all it would take.
- dmix 7y agoMy mom developed blue skin in reaction to a medication she was taking. The doctor was so interested in her body's response he brought her in front of this university medical class. Apparently it's quite rare. It went away a week or so later. (cant remember the name of the medication but it was certainly not a listed side effect).
- Cerium 7y agoI think there was an article last week the mentioned a rare side effect of benzocaine turning blood blue. Found it: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/common-numbing-medication-turned-woman-s-blood-blue-n1055991 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/common-numbing-me...
- jere 7y agoThe diagram explaining recessive genes uses blue for unaffected and red for affected. In an article about recessive genes for blue skin...
- adolph 7y agoMaybe it is using the same effect as “Hard-to-Read Fonts Promote Better Recall” https://hbr.org/2012/03/hard-to-read-fonts-promote-better-recall https://hbr.org/2012/03/hard-to-read-fonts-promote-better-re...
- cl0ckt0wer 7y agoYou're too kind
- gcheong 7y agoThe just copied it from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autorecessive.svg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Autorecessive.svg
- nobrains 7y agoYes. This one. https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/recessive-gene-flow.png https://allthatsinteresting.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads... Even though it's taken from Wikipedia, they could have used a different one or recreated it. I was so confused while trying to decycpher that image.
- heyflyguy 7y agoWeird. I worked with a guy once whose parents believed colloidal silver would cure him of his ADD. Instead he turned blue.
- ravenstine 7y agoThat's terrible because, if I remember correctly, that's permanent. :/
- pmontra 7y agoYou remember correctly. https://nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidalsilver https://nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidalsilver
- fat_turdsicle 7y agoI don't believe you
- the_giraffe 7y agoThis reads like one of those ai generated stories...
- reddotX 7y agohere you go https://i.imgur.com/NsD71Kh.jpg https://i.imgur.com/NsD71Kh.jpg
- Medicalidiot 7y agoMethemoglobinemia seems to be a popular medical topic lately. It's an easily treatable disease, usually methylene blue is used, and it's more an inconvenience than anything else.
- journalctl 7y agoI don’t know if I’d call the inability for your blood to transport oxygen merely inconvenient.
- Medicalidiot 7y agoIt's inconvenient because of how treatable it is with modern medicine.
- reilly3000 7y agoI'm not convinced this is the real deal. Change my mind?
- Thorrez 7y agoYou think it's a bogus article? Look through the reference list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Fugates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Fugates
- reilly3000 7y agoWow, I'm convinced now. The colorized photo made me suspicious.
- throw244ggg 7y agoThis is fascinating. Krsna in the Indian epic Mahabharata is similarly blue in color.
- popnroll 7y agoSonic the hedgehog is also blue.
- statictype 7y agoHe’s dark skinned. Not really blue. His depiction as blue skinned is more symbolic
- BAReF00t 7y agoSo he’s blue-skinned. Or are you implying he exists or existed for real independent of people’s psychotic heads?
- statictype 7y agoAll the written source material about him implies that he is dark skinned. Visual representations of him show him as blue for other reasons (mainly the comical stigma against dark skin).
- manquer 7y agoPerhaps OP is implying that writer(s) of myth observed this colouration in real people and used it in their myths.
- jevgeni 7y agoAre we going to talk about the absolutely ridiculous amount of ads in this article?
- ORioN63 7y agoApparently I want to buy a blue sedan and I shouldn't make the 5 mistakes they list. I wonder if someone is spinning me to finally take my driver's license.
- gpvos 7y agoMy blocker reported that it had blocked 118 items. I'd rather not know what that looks like.
- dwaltrip 7y agoOn mobile (Android), a few times an ad covered half the screen and couldn't be closed... I had to reload the page.
- hk__2 7y ago> The Blue Fugates are shown in this colorized black and white photo. Date unspecified. Original source unknown, via ABC News It’s somewhat dishonest to illustrate an article on color with a photo that was colorized by someone we don’t know at an unknow date-- i.e. we don’t know anything about how they decided which shade of blue to apply on their faces. So the only interesting information caried by the photo, the shade of the blue color, has no source. Also, this appears to be largely copied from this ABC News article: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/blue-skinned-people-kentucky-reveal-todays-genetic-lesson/story?id=15759819 https://abcnews.go.com/Health/blue-skinned-people-kentucky-r...
- IllogicalLogic 7y agoThe main reason people turn blueish is because of excessive colloidal silver usage. I expect it is the case for the family in this phony story.
- ViViDboarder 7y agoDid you read the story?
- IllogicalLogic 7y agoI read it but I think the reasoning might be wrong.
- geuis 7y agoNo it isn’t.
- tpayne84 7y agoThe travel channel did a segment on this a few years back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d-07Ced410 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d-07Ced410
- BAReF00t 7y agoAshamed of it and ridiculed? I would have tought of it a fascinating and fashionable! Especially with white hair. Man, I want that when I am old! And yeah, their ancestors might have been incestous. But that isn’t the childrens’ fault, now is it. Man, … people somtimes.
- jwx48 7y agoIt's possible I saw a member of the Fugate family back in the '80s. I grew up in West Virginia, not terribly far from the Kentucky state line. An older woman, perhaps in her seventies, was shopping in a local grocery store. I was old enough to know not to stare, but I wanted to, and couldn't help but do a sly double-take. She was bluish. No other way to describe it. No one there to witness it ever seemed to believe me (not that I can blame them), but it was a few years later that I learned the name of the family and did some research. Photos of people who are doped with enough colloidal silver to cause argyria (I think that's right) always make me think of her, and I often wonder if that was really what I saw at the time.
- riffraff 7y ago> the tint still comes out in their skin when they are cold or flush with anger. It's a bit hard to admit, but I'm really disappointed there isn't a picture of this.
- ZeljkoS 7y agoIf you want to see photos of that condition, search Google images for "methemoglobinemia": https://tinyurl.com/y6ct4ye3 https://tinyurl.com/y6ct4ye3
- sbhn 7y agoOr search for smurfs. It was my search for smurfs that bought me this HN thread. Strange how a search for smurfs, can help you to discover a new forum full of intellectual rocket scientists.
- dghughes 7y agoThat image from wikicommons showing how recessive genes are inherited but the affected person is red and the unaffected is blue. I know the blue person in the image is not related to the article but it's interesting how the article is about blue people yet the "affected" result is shown as red.
- mcnamaratw 7y agoThis is about as credible as a press release from [name of a prominent engineering school redacted]. There is no evidence of any blueness in the pictures.
- pvaldes 7y agoThere is a much simpler explanation for that, silver in water. I assume that all the case is environmentally, not genetically related, or that the history is just fake.
- Doxin 7y agoFor all the people looking for color photos, not of these specific people but at least to give an idea, You can do an image search for "Methemoglobinemia" which is what the condition is called. Turns out people who have it are rather blue. Bluer than in the colorized photo in my opinion.