Vampires are a popular topic in pop culture.
They've spawned entire series and franchises in books, films, toys, comics, and TV shows.
And there are some who have even taken the concept of vampirism to a new level of obsession,
attempting to emulate vampiric behavior.
Blood is often shown to be the source of vampiric vitality in fiction.
It's what vampires depend on most, to survive.
But what exactly would happen to you if you tried to survive solely on a diet of blood?
Well for starters, as a human, you require water to survive.
Replacing water and food with blood would effectively lead to dehydration and would
severely upset your body's regular functions.
Your skin would dry up, your brain's cognitive functions would slow down, you'd become
extremely moody and irritable, and you'd be in a state of perpetual fatigue.
After a few days without water, you would die.
Simply put, blood alone doesn't contain all of the nutrients your body requires to
function properly.
Okay, so let's say that in order to survive as an aspiring vampire, you compromised for
a diet of blood, while still regularly hydrating and maintaining the required nutritional values.
How would regularly drinking blood affect your body?
Vampire bats are one of the few organisms on the planet that ingest blood regularly.
Their unique physiology granted through evolution enables them to rapidly absorb the nutrients
found in blood, and then rapidly eliminate the excess through urination.
On top of that, their intestines are lined with a membrane of mucus that keeps them from
absorbing too much iron.
But we're not vampire bats.
We humans don't have the same type of digestive systems or evolutionary protection from the
large amounts of iron present in blood.
And since the composition of human blood isn't meant to be ingested by our bodies, we wouldn't
absorb it very well.
Sure, blood is essential for life- when confined to the areas where its supposed to be.
You know, like your heart and circulatory system.
But the fact of the matter is, blood as a beverage is toxic.
If you drank more than a pint of blood, you would likely get violently sick.
Your body would try everything it could to expel what it would recognize as a toxin from
your body.
This means you would likely suffer from chronic diarrhea and vomiting.
This is because of the large amounts of iron present in blood.
We'd be prone to iron overload, also known as hemochromatosis.
This type of poisoning can lead to major ill effects like cirrhosis or a malfunctioning
liver, diabetes, arthritis, and testicular failure to name a few.
It would also lead to pancreatic damage, causing an insulin insufficiency that would actually
bronze your skin.
This means that for those trying to become pale and vampiric, you'd effectively tan
your body by drinking lots of blood.
Drinking large amounts of blood can also lead to cardiomyopathy which is a disease of the
heart muscle.
This means you might experience a shortness of breath, swelling in the legs, feet, and
abdomen, general fatigue, and would be at an increased risk of a sudden cardiac arrest.
And of course there's the threat of contracting a bloodborne disease like hepatitis B, hepatitis
C, and HIV by drinking blood that might be diseased with certain types of pathogens.
The stomach is extremely acidic, but there's more than enough points of entry into your
bloodstream if you have any cuts on your lips or inside your mouth.
But are there any real-life benefits to consuming blood?
A new study from the University of California gave transfusions of blood from young mice
to old mice, where researchers observed an improvement in cognitive function.
The older mice even displayed better spatial learning and memory.
The researchers hypothesize that exposure to young blood has potential rejuvenating
effects on synaptic plasticity and overall cognitive function.
A procedure known as a "vampire facelift" takes a sample of your own blood, and after
extracting the platelets, injects them back into your face, leading to a temporary reduction
in lines and wrinkles.
Blood transfusions are also a much needed medical practice in the world.
Whether it be for restoring adequate blood levels to victims of car accidents, sickle
cell disease, or even for recipients of chemotherapy or intensive surgery.
According to the American Red Cross, every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood.
However, the positive effects of healthy blood only work when introduced to the bloodstream-
not the digestive system.
So not only is it unusual, but if you aren't a vampire bat, it can lead to liver disease
and heart failure.
Yet there still exist individuals in the vampirism subculture who claim to feel reinvigorated,
empowered, and more youthful by drinking blood.
What's more interesting, there seems to be a population of blood drinkers, that don't
have an interest in vampires.
In an article by BBC, a man visited New Orleans to conduct an ethnographic study of its "real
vampire" community.
He initially entered with suspicions that the blood-feeding was either a religious ritual,
a delusion, or a fetish.
However, his understanding quickly changed after meeting these individuals.
Known as med sangs (short for medical sanguinarians), the act of drawing blood for these individuals
is more like a sterilized medical procedure.
The article had an interesting thought:
"Many real-life vampires have no belief in the paranormal and have little more than
a passing knowledge of True Blood or Dracula; nor do they appear to have any psychiatric
issues.
Instead, they claim to suffer from a strange medical condition- fatigue, headaches, and
excruciating stomach pain - which, they believe, can only be treated by feeding on another
human's blood."
So we have something of an enigma here.
On one hand, science tells us that drinking blood is extremely toxic to the body with
a league of harmful side-effects.
On the other, we have a secret population of blood-drinkers who claim it actually helps
reduce headaches, irritable bowels, and fatigue.
Perhaps the amount of blood drawn from a typical "feeding" is not enough to constitute
the ill-effects of an iron overdose?
If what the interviewee from the article says is true, and there are thousands of people
secretly feeding on blood in just the US alone, there must be something we're not seeing.
I've left the article in the description below if you'd like to check it out for
yourself.
So what do you think?
Would you try a diet of blood?
Do you already drink blood?
Or have you encountered this hidden community before?
Let me know in the comments below, and as always- thanks for watching.
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