As trick-or-treaters prepare to haunt their neighborhoods in plastic fangs and black capes, the idea of vampires seems fanciful, even cute. But for centuries, these mythical creatures struck very real fear into the hearts of many.
The origins of this legend, says OMRF President Stephen Prescott, M.D., may have a concrete medical basis.
“People grappled with illness and death long before we had medical research or modern science,” said Prescott. “And if a mass illness like the plague or a highly contagious virus swept through a population, people grasped for an explanation that they could see and touch.”
Sometimes, in such circumstances, the bodies of the recently deceased were exhumed. And this, many believe, helped give birth to the vampire legend.
“Many of the details we attribute to vampires probably come from the way bodies react to decomposition,” OMRF’s Prescott said. “The lips and gums lose fluid and contract after death, which could create the illusion of longer teeth or fangs. Similarly, the skin contracts, making it appear that hair and fingernails have continued to grow.”
Another facet of the “life after death” myth likely sprung from the fact that corpses sometimes seemed larger, as if they had been eating and growing. This led to stories of the dead rising from their graves at night, to feast on the living.
This phenomenon, according to Prescott, is caused by bacteria eating away at a dead body. “The bacteria emit gases, and those gases make the torso swell,” he said. “Sometimes the gas escaping the body even causes a groaning sound.”
The vampire, said Prescott, was often a stand-in for disease. “When a cluster of people died in your village, the true culprit was probably a microorganism like tuberculosis or smallpox. But without formal education or modern science to guide them, people simply came up with an explanation that made sense to them—an undead killer.”
More recently, Prescott noted, some have drawn a parallel between vampire legends and a rare blood disorder called porphyria. Those with the disease often suffer from sensitivity to sunlight, with exposure causing blisters, rashes and increased hair growth on areas such as the forehead.
Another condition loosely tied to the vampire legend is rabies, which can be passed through bat and wolf bites. “The symptoms match the stories. People who are bitten become tired and feverish and sleep a lot,” Prescott said. The condition can also lead to a bloody frothing at the mouth.
The history of science, said Prescott, is marked by researchers trying to explain the unexplained. “That’s what we continue to do at OMRF today,” he said. “Except the killers we’re trying to understand are diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s. To me, those are much scarier than any vampire.”
