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See the original image at mentalfloss.com —

Methemoglobinemia: Blue People

mentalfloss.com — Two conditions cause people to live and be (literally) blue. Methemoglobinemia is a condition in which the blood carries less-than-normal amounts of oxygen, making the blood appear blue. Argyria is caused by the ingestion of silver, usually for medicinal purposes.

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  • trentRez9, on 09/11/2008, -1/+13Scary... never heard of that matter...
    • jwolcott, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2"And one day they all got together and formed the Blue Man Group to entertain the masses..."
    • Stroggoth, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2I saw this guy on television and he couldn't justify why he kept ingesting the silver. He claimed he couldn't tell and then one day he just turned up dark blue, but again, he sounded disingenous almost like he wanted it to happen. He did admit it took months and years to happen, so he MUST have had some idea he was turning blue, in fact he probably likes the attention.

      The Lesson: don't drink home-made quack silver solutions.
  • jlpete9, on 09/11/2008, -0/+27(Singing smurf themesong!)
    • jwolcott, on 09/12/2008, -1/+6"I'm blue tadadi tadida, tadadi tadida tadadi tadida..."
  • tneilen, on 09/11/2008, -3/+13I remember seeing a interview with Paul Karason, the man pictured, sometime ago. It was a great insight in to the amazing side effects of prescribed medicines.
    • richpav, on 09/12/2008, -0/+7Karason drank and used colloidal silver on his face on his own. It wasn't prescribed by a doctor. Doctors haven't prescribed it since the 1930's when it was replaced by antibiotics.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria
  • muxaulo, on 09/11/2008, -0/+12Dugg because irfanmp's A has blue skin ;)
  • louiebaur, on 09/11/2008, -0/+13Blue wouldn't be my favorite color to turn into but its better than others. Works for the Blue Man Group!
    • Shootfast, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3No no no, you're thinking of the support group. I did too at first
  • wrek, on 09/11/2008, -0/+11Can people ingest silver for cosmetic purposes?
  • bjenidles, on 09/11/2008, -0/+15They better watch out for Gargamel!
  • BeShirtHappy, on 09/11/2008, -0/+5I've seen this guy on a couple different shows and I think he likes being blue... he has become somewhat of a celebrity! :)
  • Borgcube636, on 09/11/2008, -0/+8If this is real, then Drows are real, which means D&D is real, which means...
    • Ismith988, on 09/12/2008, -0/+8if you die in the game, you die in real life.
  • th13rteen, on 09/11/2008, -0/+6Holy *****! I was joking about blue people all this time and its true. Don't be racist now! lol
  • Haoie, on 09/11/2008, -0/+12I was thinking of that girl from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [and the other movie], actually.

    Violet, you're turning violet!!

  • pepelu12, on 09/11/2008, -0/+13Papa Smurf
  • Aursquared, on 09/11/2008, -0/+7These people are just night elves.
    • magus_melchior, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4"I'm Mr. T, and this is my night elf Mohawk!"
      "Cut! T, there's no such thing as a night elf Mohawk."
      "Shut up, foo'!!"
  • Jdban, on 09/11/2008, -0/+2I saw this on tv before. eew.
  • berkeleylady, on 09/12/2008, -3/+1is this real??
  • mrtracy, on 09/12/2008, -1/+3This hit digg awhile ago, still it really is one ridiculous story...
  • bevraft, on 09/12/2008, -3/+5Anyone seen Daft Punk Interstella 5555.
    http://www.g4g.it/phpnews/images/Daft_Punk_InterSt ...
    • BIGBEN363, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Yea, that ***** was crazy
    • adougy, on 09/12/2008, -1/+2ONE MORE TIME
    • dtfinch, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Yes. Pirated the movie months ago from Veoh then recently bought the album (Discovery) and two others (Homework and Alive 2007), which arrived in the mail yesterday.
  • Alqutis, on 09/12/2008, -4/+4old story on blue guy is old.
  • stranglethorne, on 09/12/2008, -3/+1Some King had this right? And his pee was purple
  • geodebug, on 09/12/2008, -3/+6Don't worry blue people, Captain Kirk will still give you loving.
  • kishosingh, on 09/12/2008, -1/+2For me it is great collections. Thanks for sharing it.
  • FlashGit, on 09/12/2008, -0/+5Dr. Manhattan
  • himagain, on 09/12/2008, -2/+1O.M.G.! Is this STILL around?
    It was a stunt to scare people off the ever-growing use of Colloidal Silver - you all should go look it up! :-)
    If you did drink half a swimming pool of even badly made Colloidal Silver, you would turn GREY, not blue!
    • bob_the_alien, on 09/12/2008, -0/+3Argyria (ISV from Greek: ἄργυρος argyros silver + -ia) is a condition caused by the ingestion of elemental silver, silver dust or silver compounds. The most dramatic symptom of argyria is that the skin becomes blue or bluish-grey colored.
  • squishee, on 09/12/2008, -1/+7I just blue myself!
  • zjbird, on 09/12/2008, -1/+5Why so blue?
  • swatched, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1you gotta draw the line somewhere... to hell with purple people!
  • poogy21, on 09/12/2008, -0/+4I have Methemoglobinemia on my balls!
    • Hurricane, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2I suppose that has nothing to do with your girlfriend/wife?
  • afruff23, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic ...
  • ThumbsDOWN, on 09/12/2008, -6/+0Ya, I'm sure that there are really BLUE people in this world!
    What are you? Stupid?
    Theyre faking it with makeup! Duh!
  • omarciddo, on 09/12/2008, -4/+3God almighty, this ***** has been on Digg 5 times already Jesus. Do people really have nothing better to put on this site than rehashed crap? Jesus ***** bananas. I remember the story of old Papa Smurf ages ago, and even THEN it was a rehash of old crap! Jesus Christ on a crutch. Maybe it's my age. I feel like a geezer on this site, and half the links I find interesting are reposts, rewrites, or flat out copies of junk I've already seen! Good lord save the Pastafarians. Like I said, it's probably my age. I mean I've been here for damn near three years, THREE YEARS! I went by the username crzyomarcito back in the day. Ah those days were good. I've been around longer than MrBabyMan, ***** BABYMAN! Have any of you seen a Digg without babyman? Cause I have. I remember the days without babyman, and damn those were good days. Not that Digg went to crap cause of MrBabyMan, oh goodness no. I mean I've always wanted to see a time-delayed reddit front page on Digg, amiright? Jesus Christ I've been here too long. I've seen the rise and fall of many a meme, many a fad, and sadly, the reports of many a death. Steve Irwin, Tammy Fae Messner, that voice from the movie trailers, Steve Jobs! And yes, he is dead, just simply undead. That's right, Jobs will never die now, NEVER!

    And Digg itself will never die, simply evolve with the times and the userbase it gathers. It's got too much momentum for it to really fade away, there will always be a presence. How do I know? Because I've seen many cries over the coming "death of Digg", but as of yet none have come to fruition. I think it'll be here for a long time to come. So don't let anyone tell you what digg should be, it's what WE make it.

    Digg on you guys.
    • Hurricane, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2I have had several usernames, I have been here since Digg time itself started, indeed Digg has Dugg intself into a big hole.
  • Infowarmachine, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1i never heard of this
    didnt seem to go into any detail of how the people died or what exactly causes death?

    • Hurricane, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Heart failure due to muscle wall death due to lack of oxygen.
  • NumbersAndNoise, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2He just blue himself.

    ...

    Seriously, though the blue guy with the yellow beard and teeth creeps me the ***** out.
  • BossKey, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1As long as they're not Meanies.
  • mrogi, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Redd Foxx had a great XXX-rated Las Vegas nightclub act. He always worked blue.
  • ant008, on 09/12/2008, -0/+0You should see mystic instead... >.
  • rmeddy, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Oh far, very far from here some 2000 miles away, that's where they live and work and play...
  • kirado4, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1those ***** blue people stealing aaaaaah jobs..
  • diggenerate, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1I live in a blue house with a blue window........
  • Hurricane, on 09/12/2008, -0/+5♪♫♪♪ ...da-ba-dee da-ba-dii... ♪♫♪♪
  • loopyloopy, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Bolians... lets hope they didnt bring the flu with them
  • DarthNowitzki, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2Dugg for awesome Mavs fans at the end of the article.
  • byronshell, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2They got royally smurfed.
  • jasgeo, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2Worst case of blue balls ever.
  • jasgeo, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1Actually, he has a bit of a Morlock (from The Time Machine) thing going on as well.

    http://homerderby.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/m ...
  • otrojake, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1I'm surprised there's been no reference to Tobias Funke yet...
  • frosted, on 09/12/2008, -0/+0Blue skin eh? Kinky!
    (starts eating the silverware)
  • TrevorBelmont, on 09/12/2008, -0/+1If Zartan has taught me any one thing, it's that these people should be fine if they get out of the sun for two minutes or so.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyOguzggkHQ
  • omgwtflawl, on 09/12/2008, -0/+2God I hate Stan Jones. Every time he comes up, people mention that he is a libertarian, and also that he is completely out of his mind. No one who sees him can take libertarians seriously because that fruity blue guy who isn't even that libertarian gets air time.
  • thepointydonkey, on 09/12/2008, -0/+0Interesting but freakish...
  • cloudtears, on 09/13/2008, -0/+1(I tried to add this comment to the MentalFloss site, but... maybe that didn't work out for some reason, so I'll post it here)

    Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely.

    While reading this article I learned about Methemoglobinemia, which I had never heard of before, so I read a bit more about that:

    http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/s ...
    RI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/methemoglobinemia.jsp

    And I discovered this factoid:

    "Treatment
    For acquired methemoglobinemia the typical treatment is with methylene blue.
    This is administered with an IV over a five-minute period and results are
    typically seen within 20 minutes. Methylene blue reduces methemoglobin back to
    hemoglobin."

    In other words, methylene blue is able to donate some electrons to the
    mis-folded hemoglobin cells which allows the hemoglobin to resume the proper
    form that allows them to carry the oxygen molecule.

    And this reminded me of a news item that I had seen some time ago:

    Potential Alzheimer's, Parkinson's Cure Found In Century-old Drug (Methylene blue)
    http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/08081 ...

    So maybe the reason Methylene Blue help's prevent the degenerative diseases of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases is that it corrects mis-conformed hemoglobin cells and allows hemoglobin to better carry oxygen to the cells and carry carbon dioxide and other waste products away from the brain cells, thus allowing the brain cells to be healthier??? Just wondering...
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