Could Vampires Be Real?
- erudite .
- Apr 6, 2022
- 3 min read
By Anoushka Ghosh
Vampires are said to be fictional creatures that prey upon humans, and feed on their blood for both survival and pleasure. In a way vampires have a condition in which they do not have the required number of red blood cells that would fulfill their body’s metabolic needs by transporting oxygen, it can be said that they are ultra anaemic due to the lack of red blood cells. Blood is comparable to food and drink for humans - it is required for sustenance in vampires. If they were not able to fulfill their needs, their mind would decay until they’re mindlessly driven by hunger, turning them into brain-dead zombies. So, could this whole fiction have some essence of reality to it?
In the aforementioned paragraph, it was mentioned that the vampires had to consume blood for sustenance - for the sake of survival. Vampires, in reality, suffered from a blood disease causing them to be ultra anaemic. It may seem absolutely unlikely, but vampires may not be fiction after all. Porphyrias, a group of eight known blood disorders, affect the body’s molecular machinery of making haem. Haem groups within the red blood cells are the essential components which carry oxygen molecules. A mere genetic mutation could affect the type of red blood cells that are being produced. According to a research study conducted by Boston’s Children Hospital, it was found out that Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP) causes chronic anaemia that led to the children feeling very tired and pale. Porphyria develops in the early stages of childhood and can cause photosensitivity in which exposure to sunlight leads to the formation of painful blisters.
The genetic defect interrupts the body to produce haem means that the body would not be able to transport oxygen easily. Hence, it is said that the porphyrin synthesis is disrupted leading to different proteins being produced. Interestingly, a person may be very photosensitive due to protoporphyrin IX; this produces a chemical that damages the surrounding cells due to exposure to light.
However, Bram Stoker’s vampire characters were said to have symptoms of acute Leukaemia. This is a type of cancer that affects the production of white blood cells, which leads to an excess in white blood cells that affects the performance of the red blood cells. In the early 1900s, Bram Stoker depicted the vampire victims to be suffering by having “malaise, paleness, fatigue, anorexia, and weight loss”. However, it was unlikely that Leukaemia would be a definite diagnosis of the illness as the illness itself wasn’t discovered as yet. Therefore, it was never considered unusually familiar to find vampires facing the same symptoms as a patient suffering from leukaemia.
In reality, porphyria has no actual treatment as dramatic as drinking human blood. As a matter of fact, there is no actual real treatment to this deficiency. Being both chronically anaemic and highly photosensitive requires a change in lifestyle and regular medication that can aid in the rapid transport of oxygen around your body to maintain metabolic reactions. Changes to lifestyle may involve minimising sun exposure, reducing smoking, reducing alcohol, and avoiding dieting and fasting. It’s not entirely rare since there are 1 in 500 people to 1 in 50,000 people worldwide that may have porphyria.
Porphyria is a detrimental blood disease that has different variations. For instance, there is acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), which affected King George III of Britain. He was infamously known as the “mad king” who had recurrent neurological attacks such as trances, seizures and hallucinations. Yet, most cases of AIP haven’t had such drastic symptoms that could affect a person. One would think that Bram Stoker would have been inspired by the blood disease that led to the creation of Count Dracula. Yet, this would not be what inspired the story of Count Dracula, rather a blood-thirsty dictator who brutally murdered his foes.
The idea of vampires are not distant from reality - apart from the idea of having to drink human blood for survival and pleasure. In actuality, humans diagnosed with porphyria are the closest thing to a vampire. However, there are vast differences between a human and a vampire; this could be the chronic fear of garlic scent that would not be found in porphyria patients. It is uncertain whether or not there could even be the tiniest possibility that these folklore creatures are possibly existing among us, but this is only a statement of curiosity rather than that of truth.
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