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fuguates

The type of methemoglobinemia the Fugate family exhibited was inherited genetically.  Beginning the family line when Martin Fugate emigrated to the United States of America from France as an orphan where he met and married Elizabeth Smith, a red-haired American girl.  The couple settled in eastern Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains on the shores of Troublesome Creek. There they had seven children, four of which had blue tinted skin.  Both Martin and Elizabeth were carriers of the recessie gene that causes the excess of methemoglobin in the blood.  When a child receives two of these recessive genes that control levels of methemoglobin their skin will be tinted blue.

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The Fugates genetic code does not permit their body to create the enzyme diaphorase, which oxidizes methemoglobin to convert it back to hemoglobin.  The body naturally turns hemoglobin to methemoglobin at a slow rate, diaphorase is what allows methemoglobin to be converted back to functional hemoglobin since methemoglobin cannot bind to oxygen

enzyme diaphorase

internal medicine

  • methylene blue



  • vitamin C

chemistry (natural)​

vitamin C oxidation

methylene blue oxidation

Oxidation in this case means to increase the positive charge.  To do this the electron count is altered

oxidation

nature. science. 

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