How do you guys feel about porphyria? Could this medical condition be the source for superstitions and folklore regarding vampires?

for those unfamiliar with porphyria: when the component heme is not being adequatly produced in the bodies blood stream, a condition called porphyria results. symptoms include sensitivity to the sun (exposure causes extreme blistering that is slow to heal), high blood pressure, red and or dark urine, photosensitivity, nausea and decreased appetite, hallucinations, skin pigment changes, abnormal hair growth, and tightened dry skin especially around the mouth, thus making the incisors more conspicuous. I've heard that sufferers develope alergic reactions to garlic though it's not listed as a medical symptom.

What an excellent post!

Porphyria has indeed been fingered as a possible cause for several aspects of vampire myth in Europe, though I'm not sure if it also is the case in other places. I'm willing to concede that sufferers of porphyria were probably sometimes confused with vampires, but I'm not sure if we can ever truly track down what came first, the porphyria or the vampire myth.

Any thoughts?

I didn't remember the name of the decease so, thank you...

But the vampire myth, and this is only one of its roots...

It all began with a barbarian king (I don't remember his name) that feed on the corpses of his enemy, after a battle the first thing he did was: eat raw meat, drink blood still warm and such things...

That is only one though...

But thanks with the porphyria thing...

that or am old canablism tribe

My theory on genetic vampirism goes alot deeper into human genetics and history than porphyria. Although, yes ..many recently discovered diseases have historically been considered the sources for tales of vampirism, the walking dead (zombies), madness, ect.

that's going to play a part in my book, but it will be born vapire... not the disease

thanks for the imput. just two more question though...

if porphyria is one possible explaination of physical characteristics and Vlad the impaler a possiblel explaination for psychological and behavioral characteristics, does anyone know where or how the supernatural comes into play?

do you guys support and|or disregard supernatural attributes? which supernatural attributes do you affirm and which do you deny?

I want some blood :vampire:

one last guy shut up




has no one taken my view into acount?

sorry evil_fish, your view being?

vampire myths could have begin by a canabalism tribe

cannabalism is a behavior not an explaination and as far as i know vampires haven't been known to eat their victims but drain them of blood. so can you tell me anything else about this tribe and the traits they have (abnormal strength, pale skin, conspicuous incisors, ect) which led to this view?

well they may have ate people but as the storys where told more and more sertan facts where changed, like appernce blood sucking habbits.the tribe may have abducted people ,so parent would tell there children diffrent story to make them afrade of them.

Actually amongst the forms of vampirisms out there (there are numerous one) there are types that DO consume human organs.

Typcially refered to as Lamia, they were supposed to be female looking ghouls that consumed the entrails and other parts of victims.... these weren't the only sources of beings counted amongst the nosferatu that consumed flesh as well as blood.

this might support, partly, Evil Fish's theory, but I typically thought cannabalisitc tribes consumed the entirety of the people they ate.. and they didn't eat people just to eat people, I don't believe.. it think it had/has more of a spiritual context to it.

well if a trader who moved from town to town said theres a canble tride to the nourth they eat people. that would not get people listening to his storys would it? so the trader would "spice" up the tail like thy had fangs only came out at night lived in coffins that would get people more intersted and as they where told more frightening vampire traints where made.

an interesting thread...

Cannibalism has existed separately on every continent during the turn of tides,
and is almost always related to rituals, voodoo, or the like.
In a certain African tribe, the tribe leaders would eat a part of a defeated enemy, to recieve his strength, and conquer his soul as well as his body.
In another tribe it was tradition to eat the dead, so that their spirits would still remain attached to their kin...


Cannibalism has never, with exeption for a few special cases, been the result of starvation.

It seems that the idea of devouring another humans soul, is one of the roots to cannibalism.

CODE_CAT please....Vlad The Impaler had nothing to do with porphyria or vampires!!! You should read the post of Tamato and at my reply to that post to know all you need about Vlad!

A little extra not Tamato but Hamato! Thank you!

can we please stick to the subject

I think the easiest "Logical Explanation for the Vampire Myth" is a combination of factors. Rabies and porphyria are front-runners for this competition. In some areas, vampirism was considered to be a contagion, so maybe rabies was more rampant there. Other places, it was an inheritable condition, so porphyria might have been more prevalent. Everyone slept with their windows open back then, so rabid bats flying in to bite people is totally believable. Also rabid squirrels or other cute woodland creatures could attack in the night.
It's likely that since poryphyria and lyssa have such similar symptoms, the two diseases were confused for one another again and again, so the vampire legends about them became similarly intertwined. Thus, you find both legends existing in the same regions, even the same village, and nobody seems to think of "born vampires" and "created vampires" as being mutually exclusive.
To point to one disease or one event as being the source of the legends is not the best course, there are so many possible sources, and so many legends that have all grown together over time. It is quite likely that cannibal tribes eating diseased human meat have some place in this, especially in the strigoi legends, it is also likely that rabies is responsible for both the werewolf legends and the vampire myth, also xeroderma pigmentosum, albinism, or various brain fevers may have shared responsibility.
But porphyria was once called "clinical vampirism" by respected doctors... its place in the myth is assured. ^_^

I happen to have those sympthoms. Except for the garlic part. Other then that and that I crave and need blood. I never knew i could have a disease like that. Interesting. please give me more info.
Mail it to me at
Demonslayer29@gt.rr.com
or aim
WolvenWarrior3

thanks

This may not be relevant but on a C.S.I program this guy had a disease which attached his brain which made him think he had the permission of god to kill other could the same thing happen to someone creating the bloodsucking thing therefore creating a legend

what do you mean abnormal hair growth?