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We did a search on '+"blue people" +kentucky' and sure enough, we found a wealth of information. It seems that the Fugates of Kentucky lived for many years in relative isolation in the Appalachian Mountains and, as it turns out, several of them were indeed blue. By reading the above page and following the links on it, we learned that the matriarch of the family, Mary Fugate, who moved to Kentucky in the 1800s, was a carrier of a rare disease that prevented her blood from carrying the usual amount of oxygen. The disease, Methemoglobinemia, which we researched on Yahoo! Health, is genetically inherited
and causes an enzyme deficiency that results in cyanosis, "a bluish color to the skin." Over the course of time, due to the isolation of the family, several of the Fugates intermarried. This caused the normally recessive disease to occur with greater frequency. By the late 1800s, many of the Fugate clan were feeling more than a little blue. Despite the fact that their blue appearance didn't otherwise affect their health, many of the Fugates were delighted when a doctor named Madison Cawein came calling and prescribed "methylene blue." The chemical allowed a second enzyme to do the work of the missing one and caused the Fugates to pink right up! Today, as a result of the "increased prosperity and mobility" of the mountain
folk of Kentucky, the chances of finding a blue person are slim. Still, you never know...
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