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Oct 31, 2016 · Author Roger Luckhurst, who edited Oxford World’s Classic’s reprint of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, has researched the conditions which spread the belief in vampires, showing that the myth began to...
Jun 23, 2020 · Medical source of the myth. But where did the myth of vampires come from? Like many myths, it is based partly in fact. A blood disorder called porphyria, which has has been with us for...
- Michael Hefferon
Oct 14, 2021 · It is likely that no one disease provides a simple, “pure” origin for vampire myths, since beliefs about vampires changed over time. But two in particular show solid links.
- Rabies. Given that humans usually contract rabies from wild animals, one would expect rabies to be associated with werewolves rather than vampires. However, a 1998 paper in Neurology by Juan Gomez-Alonso put forth a convincing series of arguments that put the symptoms of rabies front and center in many vampire tales.
- Porphyria. While rabies is a likely explanation for the aggressive behavior of vampires and the transmission of vampirism via biting, several other key characteristics of vampires may have been inspired by a blood condition called porphyria.
- Tuberculosis. Did you know that in the 19th century, Rhode Island was considered to be the “Vampire Capital of America”? Between the late 1700s and the 1890s, vampire superstitions were prevalent in New England—and so was a disease people referred to as “consumption.”
Oct 28, 2023 · People believed to be vampires in real life may have had a disease. Here's how people throughout history dealt with the beings famous in folklore.
- Jenny Mcgrath
- Henry Blodget
Jul 5, 2020 · Like many myths, it is based partly in fact. A blood disorder called porphyria , which has has been with us for millennia, became prevalent among the nobility and royalty of Eastern Europe.
Oct 31, 2023 · By the mid-18th century, a report from the Austrian empress’s personal physician determined the existence of vampires to be a medical impossibility, and disparaged the Slavic communities whose ...
