Can skin really turn green like in ‘Wicked’? The truth about chlorosis, ‘the lost disease’ of teen girls

nypost.com:

musical-turned-movie primed for release this week, Elphaba — who later becomes the the Wicked Witch of the West — turns up to Shiz University with bright green skin, the result of her mother drinking a suspicious elixir while pregnant.

But here in the real world outside of Oz, there is evidence of a non-magical condition that caused young women’s skin taking on a verdant hue.According to the National Library of Medicine, chlorosis, a type of hypochromic anemia, was frequently observed in inactive girls and young women in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Hypochromia occurs when red blood cells are paler than normal. It is a consequence of insufficient hemoglobin, the pigment that carries oxygen in the blood.

Also called “green sickness,” chlorosis was characterized by the skin taking on a greenish-yellow tinge, as well as exhaustion, shortness of breath, halted periods, reduced appetite, a bluish cast in the sclera or whites of the eyes, and a taste for sour foods like pickles.