
The Fugate family of Kentucky has had blue skin for centuries - heshiebee
https://allthatsinteresting.com/fugate-family-blue-people-of-kentucky
======
mkl
A 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
[https://historycollection.co/the-fugate-family-of-
kentucky-h...](https://historycollection.co/the-fugate-family-of-kentucky-had-
blue-skin-for-generations/3/)

~~~
flatline
Don't visit that site if you value your scrollbar or browser history...

~~~
wruza
I 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
Doesn’t seem to do anything on IPhone’s safari.

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hk__2
> 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-r...](https://abcnews.go.com/Health/blue-skinned-people-kentucky-
reveal-todays-genetic-lesson/story?id=15759819)

~~~
IllogicalLogic
The 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
Did you read the story?

~~~
IllogicalLogic
I read it but I think the reasoning might be wrong.

------
jere
The diagram explaining recessive genes uses blue for unaffected and red for
affected. In an article about recessive genes for blue skin...

~~~
adolph
Maybe 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-
re...](https://hbr.org/2012/03/hard-to-read-fonts-promote-better-recall)

~~~
cl0ckt0wer
You're too kind

------
jwx48
It'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.

------
porknubbins
Some 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?)

~~~
darepublic
I think that is meant in humour

~~~
jgrowl
Yeah, 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.

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dmix
My 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
I 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-
me...](https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/common-numbing-medication-
turned-woman-s-blood-blue-n1055991)

------
ComputerGuru
> _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
More 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
I 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
Blue 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
Well 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.

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heyflyguy
Weird. I worked with a guy once whose parents believed colloidal silver would
cure him of his ADD. Instead he turned blue.

~~~
ravenstine
That's terrible because, if I remember correctly, that's permanent. :/

~~~
pmontra
You remember correctly.

[https://nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidalsilver](https://nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidalsilver)

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throw244ggg
This is fascinating. Krsna in the Indian epic Mahabharata is similarly blue in
color.

~~~
statictype
He’s dark skinned. Not really blue. His depiction as blue skinned is more
symbolic

~~~
BAReF00t
So he’s blue-skinned.

Or are you implying he exists or existed for real independent of people’s
psychotic heads?

~~~
statictype
All 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).

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jevgeni
Are we going to talk about the absolutely ridiculous amount of ads in this
article?

~~~
gpvos
My blocker reported that it had blocked 118 items. I'd rather not know what
that looks like.

------
ZeljkoS
If you want to see photos of that condition, search Google images for
"methemoglobinemia":
[https://tinyurl.com/y6ct4ye3](https://tinyurl.com/y6ct4ye3)

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dghughes
That 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.

------
jquery
Once 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
I 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
Thanks! 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.

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Medicalidiot
Methemoglobinemia 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
I don’t know if I’d call the inability for your blood to transport oxygen
merely inconvenient.

~~~
Medicalidiot
It's inconvenient because of how treatable it is with modern medicine.

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Doxin
For 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.

------
tpayne84
The 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)

------
riffraff
> 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.

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mcnamaratw
This 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.

------
BAReF00t
Ashamed 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.

------
pvaldes
There 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.

------
nishnik
Why was the color blue chosen by evolution?

~~~
maxerbubba
That's not how evolution works... random variation, sometimes detrimental,
will sometimes lead to advantage

~~~
monocasa
Sometimes both. Sickle cell anemia gives you slightly better odds of surviving
malaria for instance.

~~~
mruts
Sickle 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
> 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
2/4 resistant to malaria with no side effects and 1/4 dying is much much
better than 4/4 dying from malaria

~~~
wespiser_2018
pretty good considering something like half of all human beings who ever lived
died of Malaria!

~~~
lazyasciiart
I am mildly disappointed to learn that this is probably an overestimate,
although it is pretty significant [http://factmyth.com/factoids/malaria-
killed-half-the-people-...](http://factmyth.com/factoids/malaria-killed-half-
the-people-who-have-ever-lived/)

~~~
wespiser_2018
Thanks for calling it out! I think I first heard this from Plasmodium
researchers, and in my mind the claim has strengthen over time. A better
statement would be: "“Malaria could have potentially killed nearly to half the
people who ever lived, predominantly children”."

And this is based off the idea that for most of human history people have
lived in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of people who lived died as
children, and the predominate cause of death was Malaria.

------
reilly3000
I'm not convinced this is the real deal. Change my mind?

~~~
Thorrez
You 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
Wow, I'm convinced now. The colorized photo made me suspicious.

------
Pfhreak
Is 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.

~~~
echelon
This 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...

~~~
Pfhreak
I think that this article might meet those criteria, I still think it's
important to ask questions like this about articles like this. Because it
really is a fine line between putting people on display (like we literally
used to do when we kept other humans in zoos) and examining the various
biological traits in humanity.

~~~
soneca
So you commented before reading it?

Your critical thinking would be more useful in any other article that you
believe does not match that standard.

~~~
Pfhreak
I've read the article. I commented after reading the article. I asked
questions because I was curious how others would answer them. Because I had
not reached conclusions to them myself.

