But how exactly has the myth of vampires came into existence have you ever wondered?
No, not everyone had thought about it right! The actual myth developed somewhere in Ireland long ago. The first traces of vampiric creatures were found in Irish or Celtic mythology.
But the question still remains.Are vampires real?
Don't be surprised when I tell you yes
Vampires are real.
But they are not as we imagined them.
The real life vampires are basically humans, yes humans who are diagnosed with a disease called vampirism. In this disease people have tendency to drink blood, you can say they are addicted to it. The disease starts due to allergic reactions of certain compounds with blood that makes these people addicted to drinking blood. The clinical term for this disease is Renfield's syndrome after Dr. Renfield, who first did a research on the disease.
Now how many of us remember Prince Vlad V of Wallachia, yup I am talking about the infamous Dracula. According to many he had an immense bloodlust, he used to torture people by impaling their living body on stakes. In 1985, Dr. Thomas McDevitt suggested that Dracula suffered from an allergic reaction to blood which made him obsessed with it. Moreover the prince is seen with dark circles , puffy cheeks and a pale complexion in some of his portraits , these are surprisingly the some characteristic features of allergic reactions also. So Bram Stoker may not be completely lying about vampires.
Now coming to the superstitions like stake to the heart, burning in fire or beheading are the only way to kill vampires. But don't you think that even a normal human being would have been killed in this way.
In late nineteenth century and early twentieth century many people in Romania went on digging graves to burn bodies in the belief that the dead person are somehow transformed into vampires . An interesting article tells the story of a little boy who had gone ill just after his sisters and mother died. The villagers thought that the someone dead from his family was 'feeding' on him which was degrading his health. So, they performed the ritual of digging up their graves and burning their hearts . Then they actually made a concoction with the burned ashes and fed it to the boy. The boy died next day.
Sometime in 1982, Professor David Dolphin explained a congenital blood disorder called iron deficiency porphyria as the Dracula disease. In this disease irons and porphyrins cannot form complex compounds. Interestingly due to the presence iron free porphyrins skin lesions and other skin disfigurements are caused due to the start of a chain reaction which is stimulated by sunlight . So the affected people avoid daytime. Another characteristics of these disease is tightening of gums that makes their teeth to protude.
In this disease any substance that destroys 'haem' of hemoglobin is lethal to the patient. Now garlic activates cytochromeP450 that is an 'haem' destroying enzyme.
So next time if you meet someone with sunlight allergy or protruding teeth, don't go around running with garlic bread to prove they are vampires.
Lastly real vampires don't live long. Most of them die due to iron overload or excessive allergic reactions. They may not be the prince charming since these disease takes toll on body giving rise to heavy dark circles and excessive hairloss if not treated properly.
My advice would be next time you read a vampire novel do consider from where the myths arises.
----- Blue rose belles (Archie)
Very very informative and interesting.
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