1. BLUE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY

2. We’re not talking about...
The smurfs
Clinically depressed people
Fans of B.B. King
The Blue Man Group
Avatarians

3. Ingesting elemental silver can also turn the skin blue
Ingesting elemental silver can also turn the skin blue. This man, Paul Karason, rubbed colloidal silver on his face and skin many years ago to treat a skin condition, which made him slowly turn a bluish/grey color.

4. WHO ARE THEY?
"Blue People" are descendants of Martin Fugate, who suffered from a recessive gene which limits or stops the production of the enzyme diaphorase (enzymes that catalyze the reduction of various dyes to act as hydrogen acceptors NADH + NADPH).

5. What makes them blue? Methemoglobinemia
Red blood cells (RBC) from blue people are deficient in NADH diaphorase activity and cannot reduce the oxidized iron in methemoglobin (metHb).

6. The lack of this enzyme gives people a blueish cast to their skin rather than pink. Lack of oxygen to RBC gives this color.

7. Interview
'"He was almost purple,"' his father, Alva Stacy, recalls." Benjy was born in a maternity ward near Hazard, Kentucky and was rushed by ambulance to a medical clinic in Lexington to find help for his blue problem. Days of testing provided no answers; but then Benjy's grandmother told the doctor a story about the "blue" Fugates. Incredibly, Benjy had inherited a gene dating back over 162 years! Thankfully, Benjy lost his blue shade after a few weeks and the only lingering effects were blue fingernails and lips when he was cold or angry.

8. Fugate Family Father + 4 children are blue

9. Luna Fugate and John Stacey

10. Lorenzo Dow Fugate and Eleanor Fugate
Lorenzo Dow Fugate and Eleanor Fugate Lorenzo Dow was also know as "Blue Anze"

11. Real Folks

12. Of Lonesome Creek, Kentucky

13. In Hazard, the County Seat

14. Symptoms
Blue colored skin
Headaches
Fatigue
Coma
Death

15. Treatment
The homozygous patient (bb) daily ingestion of ascorbic acid to increase non- enzymatic reduction of methemoglobin
or the use of methylene blue (oddly enough)- acts as an e- donor

16. Degree of Blueness BB for the normal allele – not blue
Bb - heterozygotes for the blue trait - do contain some NADH diaphorase activity –(blue lips, blue fingernails)
bb – homozygous recessive - blue skin

17. Blue Pedigree of Fugates Get Handout 
= male with it
= female with it

19. Pedigree Symbols

20. More Pedigree Symbols

24. Found on WikiPedia: There is a mistake here. Can you find it?
bb Bb BB

25. Can you work out the genotypes?
Pedigree of Fugates
Can you work out the genotypes?

26. Pedigree with Genotypes
trait visible
carrier

28. PRINT AND COLOR

29. Pedigree Videos Media Showcase: Pedigree
Understanding Pedigrees (6:41)
Solving a Pedigree - the Fast Way (example 1) (6:42)
Solving a Pedigree The Fast Way -example 2(6:46)

30. You Will Make a Pedigree of Your Own Family
GET INSTRUCTION SHEET
Choose a trait from the lab of Variations of a Human Face (the one you drew the face on)