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Originally posted by TheBlueSoldier
yeah... plus there have never been any documented proof of vampire activity or vampire attacks, the closest thing we have are a bunch of idiots claiming that they are vampires.
Originally posted by worldwatcher
My opinion and thoughts on Vampires:
Vampires from the Caribbean
Originally posted by Valhall
Don't know what you want from me, Damefool. All I can tell you is that I have first hand knowledge of some one who suffers from porphyria cutanea tarda, and I have first hand knowledge of hearing a hemotologist explain that THIS disease (which will cause the "fanged look" and the teeth to turn red under ultraviolet light (hello, that's SUNLIGHT) was the origin of the "vampire legend" because it was found CENTURIES ago that phlebotomies would alleviate the symptoms. There is a good reason for this. Sufferers of this disease have "dirty blood"; blood that the porphyrins build up in.
In a normal person, the production of porphyrins are expelled through the urine, and the sweat glands...and no big deal. In a sufferer of porphyria, so many porphyrins build up in the blood stream that the urine cannot expell all of them (one symptom of a porphyric is that the urine looks like cherry kool-aid - that's the porphyrins) nor can the sweat glands. So what happens is the porphyrins "pool up" in the skin. Porphyrins cannot react well to ultraviolet light (the sun). So when these "pools" of porphyrins are subjected to the sun, great hideous lesions appear. And I do mean great hideous lesions...ones where you would AVOID DIRECT SUNLIGHT AT ALL COSTS.
REMEMBER, I AM SPEAKING FROM FIRST HAND KNOWLEGE.
Apparently, according to the hemotologist, it was found (around the time of the Count of Transylvania - who is alledged to have suffered from this genetic disease) that therapeutic phlebotomies help.
The reason being that it is a cyclically degenerative condition. The porphyrins are basically poisonous to the liver (it can't metabolize them). As the porphyrin concentration increases, liver damages occurs, and so the cycle degenerates. The only thing that has been found to alleviate symptoms (temporarily) is a therapeutic phlebotomy (drain blood out of the body).
FIRST HAND KNOWLEDGE - TO THIS DAY, THE BEST TREATMENT TO ALLEVIATE SYMPTOMS OF THIS DISEASE IS THERAPEUTIC PHLEBOTOMIES. Sufferers of this disease go in about every 3 months have blood (quite a bit, like when you are giving blood) taken out. That causes the liver to produce new non-gimped-up-blood, which helps until the body poisons it with porphyrins again.
THE FANGS, THE RED TEETH, THE LESIONS CAUSED BY THE SON, AND THE INTAKING OF BLOOD (the hemotologist stated that at first it was believed the DRINKING of blood) all led this disorder to be called the "vampire disease".
THAT's what I know.