Vampires have a few possible medical explanations.
The first is rabies, which causes aggression and biting and can be spread through the saliva of an infected animal.
Rabies can cause sensitivity to light and smell, insomnia, and increased sex drive (vampires are known for being horned up).
The virus can also infect the limbic system, which controls emotion and behavior.
Another possible explanation is tuberculosis.
The symptoms are pale skin, light sensitivity, gaunt appearance, low body temp, low heart rate, a mouth full of blood…
TB would take down whole families, which was thought to be vampires coming back to feed buffet style.
Finally, there’s porphyria: a genetic blood disorder that prevents porphyrins from becoming heme, which is part of hemoglobin and can cause issues with the nervous system and skin.
The symptoms are sensitivity to sun and light, urine that’s dark brown or red, disfigurement (avoid mirrors), and effects on the gums.
Warts
Warts are associated with witches because they are seen to be the mark of the devil and a sign of their allegiance.
HPV vaccines are 99% effective at preventing genital warts.
Zombies
Zombies also have possible medical explanations.
Cordyceps (like in “The Last of Us”) are parasitic fungi that can infect insects, compelling them to seek heights so the spore can spread into new hosts over a further distance.
They don’t infect humans, but fungi can develop thermotolerance and potentially infect animals with higher body temps.
Cordyceps are actually used in supplements sometimes.
Rabies is spread through the saliva of an infected animal via a bite.
Kuru is a type of spongiform encephalopathy that is spread by endocannibalism during mortuary rituals, a former practice of the Fore people of Papua New Guinea.
Men would eat the flesh but women would eat the brains, resulting in higher cases of Kuru in women.
The incubation period can be 5-56 years. Symptoms include loss of coordination, muscle control and fits of laughter.
Daniel David Palmer, the inventor of chiropractic care, said the practice was taught to him by a ghost.
The spiritualist claimed to speak to a ghost named Dr. Jim Atkinson, who taught him the technique…and had died 50 years before they spoke.
Carbon monoxide exposure can lead to seeing things; feelings of dread; and feeling weak, dizzy or disoriented. All symptoms of hauntings…and carbon monoxide poisoning.
More than once a haunting has been attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning from leaky furnaces.
It makes sense why we see a lot of hauntings in older building—repairs need to be made.
Worms
Toxic hammerhead worms can emerge after heavy rains. They are carnivorous, and sometimes cannibals, and eat their prey by injecting it with a powerful toxin to subdue larger prey.
They don’t attack humans, but you should be mindful of your pets around the worms.
Mummies
In the Victorian era, powder from mummies was used in a variety of medical treatments.
There is a substance found in the mountains of what was known as Persia at the time that was said to have incredible healing properties and was called “mumia.” When Europeans began to find mummies, they named them that because they assumed the substances on the bodies was mumia. So naturally, they started eating them.
It got so popular that medical scammers were making their own mummies to sell or selling off camel meat as if it was human.
Cemeteries
Grave robbers used to sell bodies to medical schools, and they called their work “resurrections.”
In central Europe in the 1800s, unclaimed bodies were distributed to medical schools for anatomy classes, but we didn’t have those system in the U.S. or U.K. So, with an increase in demand as medical schools grew, we needed new tricks.
Bodies were stuffed into barrels of whiskey and then the whiskey would be sold as “rotgut whiskey.”
Burke and Hare were two Scottish men in the 1800s who began murdering people in order to sell their bodies to anatomy classes. They killed at least 15 people before they were caught.
Potters Field for the Poor and Forgotten and the Asylum Cemetery in Baltimore were commonly picked over.
Graverobbing only ended in the U.S. after the State Anatomy Board was created to allocate unclaimed bodies.
Blood
Bloodletting came from the belief that illness comes from the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) being out of balance. So, if you’re sick, you probably have too much blood in you.
They would drain the blood either by cutting into the skin or artery, or by using “medical” leeches.
We still use leeches today for some rare conditions post-surgery when blood collects at the surgical site instead of recirculating.
Leeches have a special chemical in their saliva that can act as an anticoagulant at the affected site.
