Do you know that vampire really does exist ? They actually belong to the actual human being. With the progression of medicine, the stories about vampire and it’s habit can be logically proven. The disease that match the sign and symptoms of the vampire called as porphyria.
Porphyria is a disease that has abnormality in heme formation then it is not made properly. The disease is inherited and rarely acquired.The congenital erythropoeitic porphyria (CEP) is the kind of autosomal recessive while the other porphyria shows an autosomal dominant treits. They manifest in accumulation and rise in porphyrins excretion and precursor. Some type of porphyria is the acute presentation such as acute intermittent, variegate, hereditary coproporphyria wherease some other have chronic presentation in congenital and erytropoeitec type.
The other type of porphyria is the porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT). It occurs usually by factors inhibiting the enzyme production such as iron, alcohol, hepatitis C virus (HCV), HIV, estrogens (such as those used in oral contraceptives and prostate cancer treatment), and possibly smoking, combine to cause an enzyme deficiency in the liver.The cutaneous porphyria is the type of porphyria that have skin problems. This type usually occurs in childhood. When it is exposed to sunlight, people with this disease will develop following sign and symptoms:
- Itching
- Painful skin redness (erythema)
- Skin swelling (edema)
- Blisters
- Red urine
The symptoms occur initiated by phototoxic reaction caused by sunlight and circulating porphyrins in the vascular wall of the skins.
How does the disease occur?
Porphyria is the type of disease that has abnormality in the heme production to be specific there is a defect on the enzyme. The different enzyme defect will lead to different kind of porphyria.
Rumors regarding vampire and porphyria
Garlic
Garlic is a type of the plant, closely related to the onion, that produces this bulb. The latin name is Allium sativum, family Liliaceae (or Alliaceae). It is known to have heme synthesis function. Garlic is not yet proven to exacerbate the symptoms of porphyria. In some website it is stated avoid by porphyria patient because can be a trigger to acute intermittent porphyria but no journal actually state it.
Sunlight avoidance
The myth of vampire stated that the vampires are afraid to go in the day because the sunlight exposure will burn them. The condition is similar to porphyria patient in the reason develop in same symptoms which is initiated by phototoxic reaction caused by sunlight and circulating porphyrins in the vascular wall of the skins.
Fangs
In a website it is stated that porphyria patient may have longer canine tooth than normal. It is caused by tighten skin resulting canine teeth appear like fangs. But there is no evidence of this theory in journals.
Drink blood
Vampire is characterized as a blood sucker. But different condition occur in porphyria patients. The basic is that the disease is caused by abnormal production of enzyme. The blood does not necessarily used as a treatment and these patient do not drink blood.
References:
Mir MA. Porpyria overview. Medscape references. Available online. Updated Feb 6, 2012. Cited Sept 30, 2012.
Kujtan PW. Porphyria: The Vampire Disease. Available online. Updated Sept 24, 2012. Cited Sept 30, 2012
Timonen K, Nuutinen P, Raili K. Hepatic porphyrias with cutaneous symptoms. Duodecim.2012;128(12):1247-55.
Dugdale DC (reviewer). Porphyria. U.S National Library of Medicine. Available online. Updated Feb 28, 2011. Cited Sept 30, 2012.
