The Blue Skin Syndrome

 

Forget about the Smurfs and Avatar, and let's focus on a real disease. Or should I tell two diseases. Actually, there are two different ways to have blue skin (other than being sprayed with blue ink).

1) Methemoglobinemia:

This disease has been observed in Kentucky (USA) in the middle of the 1800s. A whole family, the Fugates, had blue skin and was called the "Blue Fugates":

The congenitale methemoglobinemia is due to a deficiency enzyme, leading to a higher level than normal of methemoglobin in the blood and a reduced oxygen-carrying capacity. There is less oxygen in the blood, which is brown instead of red, and the skin blue instead of white. The mutation is hereditary and carried on a recessive gene, therefore several members of the Fugates had a blue skin.

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The acquired methemoglobinemia is due to an exposure to exogenous oxidizing drugs and their metabolites.
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The main symptoms are : shortness of breath, fatigue, headache, dizziness, mental status changes. Severe methemoglobinemia can lead to seizures, coma and death.

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People can be treated with supplemental oxygen and methylen blue IV flush or with oral methylene blue daily.

2) Argyria: 

The word comes from the greek argyros meaning silver. The disease is caused by an improper exposure to silver, in manufacture using silver or by drinking colloidal silver. Silver accumulates in the body and colors skin in blue or grey!

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The most dramatic symptom is the colored skin. According to Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, this disease is a "cosmetic problem" and is "not harmful".

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Unfortunately, there is no treatment for argyria. Indeed, it is like silver in a photographic plate, when it gets exposed to light, it turns colored. The skin never comes back to normal.

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Here is the story of Paul Karason, who has the Argyria disease.

Suffering from acid gastric reflux and a severe dermatitis, this man decided to apply on his skin and drink every day a glass of colloidal silver (he heard about the beneficial effect of this treatment). His pain disappeared few days later, so he decided to keep drinking his concoction. Two or three months later, his skin turned blue. Paul Karason still has his blue skin and even found love despite his smurf color.