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The Fugate family of Kentucky has had blue skin for centuries (2017)
- prvc 5y ago>Though today Benjy and most of the Fugate family descendants have lost their blue coloring, the tint still comes out in their skin when they are cold or flush with anger. I wish they had included at least one photograph of this.
- colordrops 5y agoThey do, toward the end of the article.
- pavel_lishin 5y agoHe does not look blue.
- colordrops 5y agoHe doesn't look too blue at all, that is true. They say that most of the color faded as he got older. If you look closely you can see a tinge of blue on his face.
- silisili 5y agoI went to college in Kentucky with two of the Fugates, twins in fact. Sorry to report, neither were blue in color.
- diggan 5y agoMakes sense, seems like in the 1960s they came up with a solution for removing the blue color, so most likely if they have the recessive gene, they are taking those pills. > Using research collected from studies of isolated Alaskan Eskimo populations, Cawein was able to conclude that the Fugates carried a rare hereditary blood disorder that causes excessive levels of methemoglobin in their blood. > Cawein devised a cure for this disorder: more blue. Counterintuitively, the best chemical for activating the body’s process of turning methemoglobin to hemoglobin is methylene blue dye. The Fugates he treated ingested this dye and within a few minutes, the blue coloration of their skin disappeared, and their skin turned pink. > As long as they kept ingesting pills of the substance regularly, these blue people of Kentucky could live their lives normally.
- silisili 5y agoVery well could be. I'd never heard of it at the time I knew them, so didn't know to look or even ask. I can't confirm they are direct lineage or anything, though. I only know they were Fugate from eastern KY. It's not a particularly common name, nor is eastern KY particularly well populated so figure they are related in some manner.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- shoto_io 5y agoIf you Google the last name you’ll find some pictures
- dkdbejwi383 5y agoI think those are black and white with false colour
- slim 5y agosearch for methemoglobinemia
- jacksonkmarley 5y agoSame. In fact the obvious question in the absence of photographs is how blue they really were.
- sam345 5y agohttps://allthatsinteresting.com/fugate-family-blue-people-of-kentucky https://allthatsinteresting.com/fugate-family-blue-people-of...
- mdp2021 5y agohttps://duckduckgo.com/?q=fugates+blue+skin&t=h_&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fugates+blue+skin&t=h_&iax=images&...
- thinkloop 5y agohttps://s.abcnews.com/images/Health/abc_blue_man_thg_130925_4x3_384.jpg https://s.abcnews.com/images/Health/abc_blue_man_thg_130925_...
- tomjakubowski 5y agoThat's argyria from taking colloidal silver. Methemoglobinemia looks far less severe: https://blogs.brown.edu/emergency-medicine-residency/citw-14-the-blue-man/ https://blogs.brown.edu/emergency-medicine-residency/citw-14...
- huhtenberg 5y agoAs others have already mentioned, in addition to the genetic cause of blue skin it can also be caused by an ingestion of silver. There are several well-publicized cases, all of which were self-inflicted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria
- xattt 5y agoThe patho is different. Fugates’ skin was due to methemoglobin. Argyria is the result of the accumulation of silver nanoparticles in body tissues. Argyria is not reversible. I would imagine the actual hue of the blueness would be different.
- nsonha 5y agoNow I wonder if the blue skined gods of hinduism are based on real people
- selimthegrim 5y agoThat’s from Datura metel
- dougmwne 5y agoThe discovery of the treatment in the methylene blue dye is quite fascinating. How exactly did someone figure that out for such a rare condition? And imagine being deep blue all your life and everyone knowing you as blue, then you take this blue pill and bam, you're pink as can be. Must have seemed like practical magic.
- Nition 5y agoThe general condition of methemoglobinemia isn't as rare as this family's particular genetic condition, so the methylene blue treatment was already known. I'm not sure when they first discovered that methylene blue can treat methemoglobinemia - methylene blue was discovered in 1876, but it does all sorts of things.
- et2o 5y agoMethylene blue has a fascinating history in medicine. It was already well known as a treatment for methemoglobinemia however. It's a ready electron acceptor. It's used for a few other conditions today, without a lot of evidence.
- _spduchamp 5y agoYves Klein used Methylene blue in the drinks at one of his shows to great effect... https://socks-studio.com/2019/11/23/iris-clert-yves-klein-the-void-arman-the-full-up/ https://socks-studio.com/2019/11/23/iris-clert-yves-klein-th...
- folli 5y agoIt's a known cure for Methemoglobinemia: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000562.htm https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000562.htm
- heavyset_go 5y ago> And imagine being deep blue all your life and everyone knowing you as blue, then you take this blue pill and bam, you're pink as can be. Must have seemed like practical magic. Almost sounds like homeopathy, without the dilution, that actually works.
- vmception 5y agoAnyone have better photos, maybe from the 70s onward?
- boomboomsubban 5y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methemoglobinemia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methemoglobinemia Maybe that particular family had it much worse but I don't think I'd ever see someone with it and think "they're blue." Though if it's like poor circulation, it'd looks a bit more blue in person.
- andai 5y agoThere's some photos of Paul Karason on Google Images, who developed the same condition from silver poisoning.
- jeffbee 5y agoHe turned blue from silver poisoning, he did not develop methemoglobinemia from it.
- philwelch 5y agoSo did this guy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Jones_(Libertarian_politician) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Jones_(Libertarian_poli...
- supermatt 5y agoSilver nitrate is a known cause of acquired methemoglobinemia.
- robbedpeter 5y agohttps://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/argyria-overview#:~:text=Argyria%20is%20a%20rare%20skin,your%20skin%20color%20is%20permanent https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/argyria-o.... Different conditions. What happens with colloidal silver is the buildup of silver oxides in tissues, permanently staining them blue.
- dang 5y agoOne past thread: The Fugate family of Kentucky has had blue skin for centuries - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21096062 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21096062 - Sept 2019 (86 comments)
- beloch 5y agoThey don't have a family tree... They have a family ladder. Wow.
- boomboomsubban 5y agoOther than the one person marrying their aunt, the closest connection I can see is a second cousin marrying, something I believe is legal, healthy, and very common in that period. I'd bet portions of your family tree from two hundred years ago would look similar.
- ceejayoz 5y agoThat tree's focused on only one person, Ben Stacy; his ancestors. The entire tree sounds a lot more connected: > However, by the early 1960s, some members of the Fugate clan had begun to resent their cobalt-tinted skin. Not only did their skin mark them as different, but by that time, people had already begun to associate their skin color with the family’s history of inbreeding.
- boomboomsubban 5y agoI think if any of us had a visual cue showing our familial ties people would also say we had a family history of inbreeding.
- User23 5y agoIt’s called pedigree collapse. Your family tree grows exponentially to the second power with each generation. So a mere 50 generations ago, which is to say roughly 1000-1500 years ago, you had 1,125,899,906,842,624 slots in your family tree. Needless to say the vast majority of those slots don't have a unique person in them.
- cperciva 5y agoMine certainly does. One quarter of my ancestry comes from an area of Lancashire which had three wealthy families -- the Cleggs, the Mercers, and the Taylors. Those three families intermarried almost exclusively from ca. 1400 until ca. 1850.
- Something1234 5y agoNot to be insensitive, but it would have been interesting if they had a member of the family play an Andorian in Star Trek. Think about it.
- codeisawesome 5y agoOr Kree in MCU!
- ars 5y agoIt's more of a gray-ish blue, not bright blue like those characters.
- danschumann 5y agoCool so can we edit our genes to express our inner smurf?
- folli 5y agoYou don't need gene editing, a bit of Nitrobenzene will do: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33510533/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33510533/ Note: do not do this!
- 29athrowaway 5y agoSome people get blue skin after exposure to colloidal silver.
- imglorp 5y agoMaybe the old term for European aristocrat, blue blood, along with its inbreeding connotations, is more literal than history gives it credence. It's usually attributed to pale skin but perhaps methemoglobinemia was on display. https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/why-people-noble-called-blue-blooded/ https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/why-people-nobl...
- Bayart 5y agoIf people had been quite literally blue, it would have been widely written about. You're talking about an era giving people nicknames based on their countenance and using any slight deformity for propaganda was quite common.
- jiahaiqi 5y agoTherefore, close relatives to marry is a human breeding taboo, will greatly increase the probability of genetic diseases in infants
- adnmcq999 5y agoBlue fugate(s) would be a cool name for a band
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- sandworm101 5y agoThis article touches on something that remains very true today: if you want to study genetic disorders you look at closely-related populations. If the condition you want to study is linked to a recessive gene, you want to find (or create) an isolated population with that gene. In animals/plants this is why inbreeding can serve a useful function. If you want to detect a recessive gene, but either don't have access to genetic testing or are not sure which gene is involved, you in-breed until you see individuals who express the recessive gene. These individuals inherited the recessive gene from both parents. You then know which parental lines carry the gene, which lets you select for or against it.
- londons_explore 5y ago> inbreeding can serve a useful function Are there any examples of species doing this 'deliberately'?
- loonster 5y agoWhen they do it deliberately with cattle they call it line breeding.
- h2odragon 5y agoMany show breed dog pedigrees have lots of ancestors, many of them the same dog.
- arbitrage 5y agoHave you heard about the Fugate family from Kentucky?
- rndgermandude 5y agoIf I remember correctly, certain types fruit flies prefer inbreeding.
- inawarminister 5y agoRoyal consanguinity marriages in old Europe. And many other places as well. Sibling marriages in Egypt and the Diadochi!
- superjan 5y agoComically, the author used a stock image to explain how recessive genes work, where the unaffected individual is blue, and the affected is red. It serves more to confuse than explain.
- choeger 5y agoThese people would be naturals in any star trek show. Finally a cheap way to cast more Andorians.
- vilaca 5y agoThe true "Indigo Children". Sorry to resurrect that early 2000's meme.
- dav_Oz 5y agoSome oxiditation (1%) of Hb (Fe 2+) to metHb (Fe 3+) is normal, it gets reduced back by the enzyme Cytochrome b5 reductase. So far so good. But since metHb is dysfunctional and cannot bind oxygen and you need levels of at least 10% metHb to be visible as cyanosis: Why didn't they exhibit oxygen-deficit related symptoms? Or can your body compensate with other mechanism if it's congenital? At least when it is visibly induced you most certainly will also suffer from symptoms like shortness of breath etc.
- beaconstudios 5y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methemoglobinemia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methemoglobinemia It would seem you are correct but these effects weren't touched on by the article.