Whether or not real vampires truly exist and what is the exact nature of their behavior and habits remains a question that may never be answered. Stories abound concerning people who cannot come out in the daylight, who drink the blood of their unsuspecting victims, and who can only be killed by a silver stake through their heart. The line is somewhat blurred between what may be real and what may be legend, but there are a few elements that lend fuel to the vampire fire.

An ailment known as “porphyria” could be one contributing factor to vampire myth. This disease causes the afflicted to have vastly insufficient heme, the iron-rich pigment in the blood. This deficiency causes the afflicted to appear unduly pale and renders them extremely sensitive to sunlight, to the point that even mild sun exposure causes severe burns. The gums and lips may become an unusually deep red color, lending to the pale-skinned, crimson-lipped visage depicted in vampire movies. It is possible that before modern medicine, a remedy for the condition could have been considered to be drinking blood in order to replace the blood in which the afflicted was obviously deficient. All of these elements taken together could very well paint a picture of someone rising at night to drink the blood of innocent victims, and the story became embellished from that point to include the various details we now associate with vampire stories.

Or…they are real and we just don’t know it.

 Print This Post This entry is filed under Vampires. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.