Porphyria, Vampires, Werewolves, and Batman
The synthesis of heme (an important part of hemoglobin and red blood cells) is a complicated process requiring eight different enzymes. If any one of these enzymes is not working correctly, then a chemical known as porphyrin builds up and the person is said to have porphyria. There are several different types of porphyria depending on which enzyme isn’t working correctly. Generally, the porphyrias can be grouped into two classes: the acute (or hepatic) porphyrias, and the cutaneous (or erythropoetic) porphyrias.
The acute porphyrias cause severe abdominal pain as well as neurological and psychological symptoms. Some of them have cutaneous (skin) symptoms as well.
The cutaneous porphyrias, as the name suggests, have primarily skin symptoms. Photosensitivity — a painful rash when exposed to light — is a common problem.
In the late seventies and early eighties, several papers and a book or two were published suggesting that porphyria was the basis for vampire and werewolf legends. There is a certain undeniable logic behind the idea. People with porphyria do not venture out in the daylight, which explains the sunlight aversion of vampires (and werewolves, to a lesser extent). The disease can cause a thinning of the lips and gums, exposing more of the teeth, giving the individual a more bestial appearance. Historically, porphyria was treated by having the patient drink animal blood. Additionally, increased hair growth can be seen in some cases of porphyria and the psychiatric symptoms can lead to strange behaviors and increased violence.
It’s an interesting hypothesis, but I’m skeptical. I’m certain that people unfortunate enough to have porphyria were accused of being vampires or werewolves, but I don’t buy the idea that the entire legend is based on the disease. The theory seems to pick and choose the symptoms of different porphyrias to support the idea, creating a hodge-podge disease that doesn’t actually exist in nature (or if it does, would be extremely, extremely rare). Drinking animal blood does not equate to a blood lust — people with porphyria may understand that blood helps their symptoms, but they don’t actually crave it. The theory also describes the modern depiction of vampires — which is quite different from the how our ancestors understood them. For example, the vampire’s violent aversion to sunlight — a main part of the porphyria link — is a twentieth century embellishment to the vampire.
I’m not alone in my views as the majority of the scientific and medical community has dropped the theory (and I’m sure most have even better reasons than the ones I mentioned.) This hasn’t stopped the “porphyria = vampirism” link from appearing in pop culture over the past several decades. I’m pretty sure I remember it showing up as a side plot in an episode of St Elsewhere in the ’80s. More recently, the idea has shown up in the Batman and Detective Comics annuals as well as this week’s episode of Castle.
In the back-up story in the Batman and Detective annuals, the Gotham City Blood Bank is vandalized and robbed, and there is also an attempted murder or two. The villain — or is it villains? — is revealed to be someone with porphyria who believes that they are a vampire.
In one scene, some blood found at the crime scene is sent off to the lab and is returned with a diagnosis of porphyria.
Here’s my annotated version of that scene:
1. DNA testing — DNA and genetic testing is one of the best ways to diagnose porphyria. However, it’s a specialized test that is only run by certain labs and it takes more than just a day or two to get results.
2. There’s been DNA testing, but they still refer to it by the general term “acute hepatic porphyria” rather than which specific porphyria it is. That’s the point of the DNA testing: to pinpoint the exact enzyme deficiency.
3. I don’t think there’s any doubt where the information from this first paragraph came from, and it’s a nice accurate paragraph. [link fixed]
4. The second paragraph is a mess though, referring to a largely abandoned theory as if it were fact. The inaccurate “blood craving” is mentioned. And what is “pale pallor?” By definition, someone with pallor is pale.
I will point out that for the most part the writer makes it clear that it is the villain who believes in the porphyria/vampirism link — and other than the lab report shown above — does not seem to endorse the connection herself.
In Castle, an insane individual who believes himself to be a vampire screams out in flames and starts to smoke when exposed to sunlight. This is later explained away as porphyria.
Now, sunlight can be painful to people with severe cutaneous porphyria, but the skin rash (blisters, usually) take several minutes of exposure to develop — and that’s in the most severe case. The skin never smokes though, that’s simply ridiculous, even for Castle.
October 30th, 2009 at 5:27 am
I agree with the idea the fantasy of people contributed to the stories surrounding especially Vampires and the condition they suffer.And the concept that Vampires burst into flames when they are exposed to sunlight is just attributed to man’s ability to imagine the unimaginable which is basically in my opinion fantastic really.
Vampire High and Vampires in History, Geography, Anatomy, and Poetry
October 30th, 2009 at 7:25 am
The link in number three gives me a 404.
October 30th, 2009 at 7:42 am
On a semi-tangential note, have you seen this “Vamprie Domestication” presentation? What are your thoughts on it?
October 30th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Oh, and your link in Point no.3 leads to a 404 Error page :(
October 30th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Official Comment
Re: point 3.
Looks like I forgot to upload the comparison image I made. Oops. I’ll fix it later today when I get the chance.
Basically, the first paragraph is a word for word recap of the Wikipedia article on Porphyria. (Start at the third paragraph down, titled “acute porphyria.”)
October 30th, 2009 at 8:16 am
It was the smoking-skin Porphyria on Castle that led me to your page to begin with!
My medical knowledge is _extremely_ limited, but that one tickled my scepticism.
October 30th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
The Smoking Vampire had me laughing out loud. I filed that under “Subjecti-Cam”, the same conceit that lets the audience pick up on all the little cues and details that only the Incredibly Insightful Observer (Monk, Psyche, the Mentalist, Gil Grissom) can “really” see. In this case, our slightly freaked-out detectives saw a little skin reaction and their minds filled in Instant Smoke.
Are you watching Flash Forward? A couple of weeks ago, they had a subplot revolving around Addison’s Syndrome that I was hoping to get your take on.
October 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Regarding vampires, one of the more fascinating bits of folklore on them is how recent our current conception of them is. Paul Barber’s book on Vampire Folklore is in particular an interesting read. Basically, a lot of the traits of vampires are essentially the same as decomposing corpses. They tended to be ruddy-faced, plump, and they stank. The combination of the film version of Dracula and improved embalming techniques has resulted in the current conception of vampires being waxen, elegant, and conspicuously devoid of natural odor and warmth.
October 31st, 2009 at 1:27 am
My friends and I spent the commercial break of Castle arguing how it couldn’t be Porphyria because his skin was smoking and we were trying to figure out why he might have smoked….needless to say there was a massive groan when they said Prophyria.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Doc Scott,
Excellent post (as most of your site – the others being just very good).
Every time I return here I either learn a lot of new things (like in this case) or have a few laughters.
October 31st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Plus a minute on the doomsday clock for the actual plot but minus five for the awesome Firefly and Buffy refs.
November 2nd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
There was an episode of CSI back in season one that had porphyria in it. And a cannibal! That was new to me…
November 6th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Yeah CSI was cool. I wonder what happened to that woman =)
I remebered something from Murder She wrote, i think, about Injecting blood under skin to stop reaction to light in porphyria victim….
I think that it’s just looked good when a vampire due light exposure starts burning and smoke coming out… So if it looks good why not? =)
November 25th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
as a buffy fangirl and future doctor (or at least i hope) i would like to precise that vampires have super strength, while in porphyria if i’m not mistaken there’s muscle weakness… XD
however… i love your reviews, they give me just the little info that i need to avoid confusion!
December 11th, 2009 at 11:59 am
You scoff ..
Explain this ..
Garlic ..
Garlic is USED to promote the ‘taking’ of the leech to the body during a .. bloodletting.
At one time it was legal ONLY for ‘certain people’ to use bloodletting as a treatment.
The garlic is placed / dabbed on the skin and the leech is placed at the point of mark and it takes MUCH better.
Sooo .. imagine IF you were to put out some propaganda about HOW .. “people out for blood are vampires and if they mention garlic to ya you had better .. run!!”
It might keep the number of bloodletters to a minimum if not totally wipe them out.
January 9th, 2011 at 12:27 am
I happen to have HCP aka hereditary coproporphyria. What none of u seem to knw is we are allergic to sulfur. People were not drinking bottled water back then they were drinking alcohol (another allergy) beer & wine folks, wine contains sulfur, which brings on attacks when coonsumed. I do have photo sensitivity, prefer sunglasses, artificial lights give me headaches, as does the sun. Love darkness. There is a hyper sensitivity to pain, which causes you to develope an unusual high threshold for pain tolerance. Weaken musles only occurs during an attack, but again, for my build & size I’m shockingly strong…my bf freaked when he saw me move my piano by myself. Oh love red meat on the rare side…believe me I can understd why after living w/ my diagnosis since I was 9yrs old why ppl would think we are vamps & werewolves…never heard about this until I had lived w/ the diease (knowingly) for more than 25yrs. Its also called the aristocrats disease….its part of the reason why I have it…whether its true or not, the connection…the story is fun, & I can see some similarities…facinating
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