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Humans shouldnt drink blood, even on Halloween Meet the people who do anyway
Halloween is upon us, leading to an uptick in all things spooky. Nothing is spookier, in my books, than clinical vampirism. So please join me on a quest to understand the ins and outs of drinking blood, and to meet some of the people who do.
Clinical vampirism is also known as Renfield’s syndrome. Who is Renfield? A fictional character from Bram Stokers 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. Did he drink blood? No, a man called Richard came up with the name as a Halloween-y joke. The more you know. Is it bad for your health to drink blood? Not if you are a vampire bat. But… you’re not a vampire bat, are you?
Humans are not supposed to drink blood
Blood belongs in blood vessels, not in your mouth. Nor in your stomach.
Carnivorous animals that eat raw meat and, with it, significant quantities of blood have anatomies that have developed over millions of years to be able to deal with the bacteria and food-borne pathogens that otherwise would be harmful, writes Healthline.
On the subject of drinking raw blood, it is hardline: it is not a safe practice.
A few teaspoons here or there should be safe, as long as the blood hasn’t been left to breed pathogens. But too much is poisonous, even if it’s… fresh…
That’s because blood is prone to bacterial growth, which human digestive systems arent set up to deal with. Ingesting more than a small amount could increase your risk of infection and other illnesses, such as Streptococcal pharyngitis. Symptoms include fever, sore throat, red tonsils, and enlarged lymph nodes on the front of the neck.
Drinking too much blood can decrease libido and make your skin turn gray
Blood is rich in iron, which the body doesnt excrete easily. So, any animal that drinks too much blood runs the risk of building up too much iron.
Having too much iron in your system is called hemochromatosis. Symptoms of hemochromatosis include:
- Liver damage
- Joint and abdominal pain
- General fatigue and weakness
- Diabetes
- Reduced libido (sex drive)
- Impotence
- Heart or liver failure
- Bronze or gray skin color
- Memory fog
- Low blood pressure
If you have any of the symptoms of hemochromatosis even if it has nothing at all to do with drinking blood you should see your healthcare provider.
Equally, if an immediate family member has it, its worth asking about genetic testing. Knowing if you have the gene that increases your risk of it enables you to make decisions that might decrease the chances of developing it, according to Mayo Clinic.
Clinical vampirism isnt as common as you half-hoped it might be
Despite the popularity and sheer number of stories about vampires and other blood-sucking humanoid creatures, very few cases of Renfields syndrome (aka clinical vampirism) have ever been reported.
Moreover, most of the cases that have been described have been regarded as part of other psychiatric disorders. Autovampirism is one of the many symptoms of schizophrenia, for example. Autovampirism is where someone drinks their own blood.
Cases exist in the scientific literature of schizophrenia patients in Israel (1989) and South Africa (2006). This latter is curious because, as the case reports authors note, even though the idea of vampires features strongly in contemporary Western culture, it does not appear in traditional South African folklore or culture.
In 2016, a report emerged of a patient with traumatic brain injury exhibiting vampiristic behaviors. Her vampiristic thoughts and fantasies began in adolescence, but she didnt act on them until her late 30s when she suffered a severe brain injury.
She is one of fewer than 100 cases that have been reported in the world literature to date, according to the study that describes her journey.
Meet the real vampires of New Orleans
In 2015, horror scholar John Edgar Browning began writing up his work of five years, namely, his quest to meet the real vampires living in New Orleans and Buffalo.
They are not easy to find, he wrote in The Conversation at the time, but when you do track them down, they can be quite friendly.
They are not real vampires in the sense that they turn into bats or & well, it turns out most of the other markers are there. Many are nocturnal, and many have, or rather wear, fangs.
And they need, or at least believe they need, blood or psychic energy from donors to feel healthy.
Such individuals exist in Russia, South Africa, England, and elsewhere in the US, Browning writes. He estimates that he met 35 in New Orleans alone, and that was only half of the city’s blood-drinking population.
He writes that the people he spoke to described the taste of blood as metallic and/or coppery. Not only that, but it changes depending on how well-hydrated the donor is, as well as their general physiology. They didn’t think much of his blood, apparently.
Journey to the Placenta of the Earth
Is it safe to eat the placenta after giving birth? Mayo Clinic makes no bones about it. Eating the placenta can be harmful, it states. Meanwhile, there is no evidence that it has health benefits.
Eating the placenta after birth is called placentophagy.
One (relatively) common way to prepare it is to steam and then dehydrate it before grinding it up and putting it into multiple capsules in a process called, you guessed it, placenta encapsulation.
People also have been known to eat the placenta raw or cooked, Mayo Clinic adds. Some put it in smoothies or liquid extracts.
In 2023, the Guardian ran a report on the moms eating placenta gummies and smoothies, noting that celebrities such as Chrissy Teigen and more than one Kardashian have made it mainstream.
The CDC has warned against the practice since 2017 when a baby caught an illness Strep A from its mother. She appears to have developed it as a result of eating dried placenta capsules.
Thats the case that still haunts everyone in the industry, the paper quotes one encapsulation insider as saying. Shes seen placenta cookies and placenta chocolates. Shes even heard of placenta spaghetti.
The more you know&
