Comments on: Porphyria, Vampires, Werewolves, and Batman

By: nik

nik — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 06:27:12 +0000

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

By: Tom Hennessy

Tom Hennessy — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:59:03 +0000

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.

By: Roberta

Roberta — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:01:03 +0000

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!

By: Mirror

Mirror — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:58:05 +0000

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? =)

By: Rae

Rae — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:54:26 +0000

There was an episode of CSI back in season one that had porphyria in it. And a cannibal! That was new to me…

By: e

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:42:38 +0000

Plus a minute on the doomsday clock for the actual plot but minus five for the awesome Firefly and Buffy refs.

By: Alberto

Alberto — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:40:56 +0000

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.

By: Shadowkate

Shadowkate — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:27:45 +0000

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.

By: Sean Duggan

Sean Duggan — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:41:13 +0000

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.

By: Your Obedient Serpent

Your Obedient Serpent — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:48:56 +0000

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.