Humans and Blood Consumption

Well, your first question seems to me more a question of how the victim loses said blood. If the blood pressure drops to zero--no matter how much blood is actually leaves the body--then we die.

How much blood can a human consume? That seems to me more a question of how much can they swallow? I've read accounts of people drinking and almost immediately vomiting but is that a necessary physical reaction? I don't believe so, but it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.

I remember reading somewhere that our digestive systems cannot absorb red blood cells, but that we don't have a problem with the plasma.

I believe there is a certain fetish/lifestyle in which people who identify as vampires do drink human blood. They are pretty careful about it, they aren't like crazy dracula types. Try to look them up. I will see if I can find the name for it.

ETA: Vampire lifestyle, apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_lifestyle You could google it. I'm at work so I will not.

Too much blood can induce vomiting. Look up pyphoria (a disease that added to the legends of vampirism). Some pyphoria patients tend to believe that ingesting blood of humans or animals can reduce symptoms of the disease.

Famous "vampire" killers:

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/weird/vampires/1.html

For a bit of insight into psychopaths that believed they were vampires or were labelled that they believed such. Starts with Erzabet Bathory, moves into some pretty dark territory for serial killers and psychopaths.

Try picking up (not in print anymore, hard to find) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead J. Gordon Melton is the author and I have the first and second edition myself.

(porphyria)

TabithaTodd said:

Too much blood can induce vomiting. Look up pyphoria (a disease that added to the legends of vampirism). Some pyphoria patients tend to believe that ingesting blood of humans or animals can reduce symptoms of the disease.

Try picking up (not in print anymore, hard to find) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead J. Gordon Melton is the author and I have the first and second edition myself.

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Kitty Pryde said:

I believe there is a certain fetish/lifestyle in which people who identify as vampires do drink human blood. They are pretty careful about it, they aren't like crazy dracula types. Try to look them up. I will see if I can find the name for it.

ETA: Vampire lifestyle, apparently: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_lifestyle You could google it. I'm at work so I will not.

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www.vampire-church.com

These are "real" vampire lifestylists. Talk to Damien, Silver or NoDeCafe. They'll help you out with research and the articles in the news zine are available free.

Kitty Pryde said:

(porphyria)

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I knew I was spelling it wrong, thank you for the correct spelling of the word. Unfortunately, I suck at spelling...fortunately, spell check in wordprocessors keeps my writing in progress error free 90% of the time unless the word in not in the spell check batch file.

Not Quite the same thing, but humans have always consumed animal blood.Blood is nutritious and can be consumed in large quantities without harming you .I not heard of anybody just drinking blood on its own.It was usually mixed with something,oats or milk. Nowadays,in England, it's turned into black pudding . I think someone could just drink blood, but not me, if they really wanted to.As for actually sucking a couple of pints of the stuff from some ones neck?.I would go for a transfusion approach and drink it from a bottle.

This might not be useful but I thought I'd throw it in. In Britain and Europe, black pudding is readily available. It's sausage made largely from congealed blood. You can also buy it in Australia, where I'm from, in ordinary supermarkets, so it's widely eaten.

Kind of like jerky for a vamp?

I remember reading somewhere that mongol warriors would make a cut in one of their horse's veins and drink the blood from that as sustenance if they didn't have sufficient human-edible food.

TabithaTodd said:

...
Try picking up (not in print anymore, hard to find) The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead J. Gordon Melton is the author and I have the first and second edition myself.

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With online item-specific metasearch engines (is that a real phrase?) very few things are truly hard to find thesedays. I see many copies readily available at low prices:
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?a...ncyclopedia+of+the+Undead&lang=en&st=xl&ac=qr

benbradley said:

With online item-specific metasearch engines (is that a real phrase?) very few things are truly hard to find thesedays. I see many copies readily available at low prices:
http://www.bookfinder.com/search/?a...ncyclopedia+of+the+Undead&lang=en&st=xl&ac=qr

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I had a very hard time finding my second hand copy of the second edition. The first is out of print as well and I bought that one brand new many years ago. Most second hand ones I found didn't ship to Canada (Amazon for example has very few books that ship to Canada, sucks).

In fact, my husband bought me the second edition as a gift. Took him about 4 or 5, maybe 6 months to find someone to ship to Canada.

1. How much blood can a person consume at one time? Is this enough to make the victim die of blood loss?

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An adult male can donate a pint of blood every 6 weeks.
If the blood loss is sudden, a loss of 3 or 4 pints can kill you

2. What sort of negative physical effects might occur if a person drank human blood every one to two weeks or so?

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People who have nosebleeds and swallow the blood end up vomiting from the iron content of the blood ... it's really NOT edible, and they usually only swallow less than a cup of it. You get nauseous real quick.

The person would be having "black tarry" feces from the iron breakdown, and would be killing his bone marrow from the overdose of iron, and his liver from having to handle the excessive protein.

Tsu Dho Nimh said:

An adult male can donate a pint of blood every 6 weeks.
If the blood loss is sudden, a loss of 3 or 4 pints can kill you



People who have nosebleeds and swallow the blood end up vomiting from the iron content of the blood ... it's really NOT edible, and they usually only swallow less than a cup of it. You get nauseous real quick.

The person would be having "black tarry" feces from the iron breakdown, and would be killing his bone marrow from the overdose of iron, and his liver from having to handle the excessive protein.

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This is brow raising...I don't think the second part is quite that accurate.

I went through a stint in college of goth\real vamp life-styling. Never had those problems in college. Nose bleeds also don't produce enough (unless is severe and that means an underlying health issue not just nose bleeds) to cause nausea - at least when ever I've ever had one I was never nauseous.

TabithaTodd said:

This is brow raising...I don't think the second part is quite that accurate.

I went through a stint in college of goth\real vamp life-styling. Never had those problems in college. Nose bleeds also don't produce enough (unless is severe and that means an underlying health issue not just nose bleeds) to cause nausea - at least when ever I've ever had one I was never nauseous.

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I'm a medical Technologist and a ski patroller. I see and treat lots of bloody messes, and diagnose lots of GI bleeding.

The usual non-trauma nosebleed is 20 or fewer cc of blood, coming from the soft part of the nose. It doesn't take much to make a mess of your face and shirt, and it's unlikely to get into your stomach.

When we have someone with a traumatic nosebleed - from whacking their face on a snowboard - they are very likely to throw up if they aren't sitting in a position that lets the blood drain out instead of into their throat and nose, and in some instances, actively spitting out blood that's running down the back of their throat from a high bleed. And that's usually just 50-100 cc of blood.

The black tarry stool - called "melena" - happens with 100-200 ml of blood in the GI tract.

The iron overload - called acquired iron overload - happens just from consuming far more iron than you need. Some people are more susceptible than others, but a weekly drink of a pint or two of human blood would get you there in a year or so.

Tsu Dho Nimh said:

I'm a medical Technologist and a ski patroller. I see and treat lots of bloody messes, and diagnose lots of GI bleeding.

The usual non-trauma nosebleed is 20 or fewer cc of blood, coming from the soft part of the nose. It doesn't take much to make a mess of your face and shirt, and it's unlikely to get into your stomach.

When we have someone with a traumatic nosebleed - from whacking their face on a snowboard - they are very likely to throw up if they aren't sitting in a position that lets the blood drain out instead of into their throat and nose, and in some instances, actively spitting out blood that's running down the back of their throat from a high bleed. And that's usually just 50-100 cc of blood.

The black tarry stool - called "melena" - happens with 100-200 ml of blood in the GI tract.

The iron overload - called acquired iron overload - happens just from consuming far more iron than you need. Some people are more susceptible than others, but a weekly drink of a pint or two of human blood would get you there in a year or so.

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A med technician diagnosing lots of Gi Bleeders on skis? Anyway, you are comparing disease states to voluntary consumption by a physically fit individual; apples and oranges. A whack on the head makes people nauseous whether or not they swallow blood. Having blood run through your sinuses before swallowing it is not the same as eating/drinking blood. Melena isn't likely until someone has a sudden introduction of several pints of blood, not just 100 cc. You are obviously confusing a positive hemoccult test with melena. If you are finding GI Bleeders in the snow exhibiting melena, they will not likely survive the trip to the hospital.

Acquired iron overload? I've been retired for a few years but I doubt that would likely happen from having the equivalent of a big steak every few weeks. That's something that happens from excessive overuse of supplements not a somewhat tweaked diet. Add to that, that people who have uncommon binges often fast before and or after the binge. I'd be more concerned about the character's cholesterol level. The other thing would be blood borne diseases. With Blood Sausage and Pudding etc, the blood has been cooked and often also refrigerated. Rapid changes in temperatures will kill most things, but that isn't the case for fresh blood. Hepatitis, HIV maybe even Lymes, I'm not sure if anyone has really studied the infection risk of ingesting blood.

Don't the Masai in Kenya drink blood from their cattle (like the Mongols did with their horses) as part of their regular diet?

aquatico said:

Don't the Masai in Kenya drink blood from their cattle (like the Mongols did with their horses) as part of their regular diet?

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Yes.

The biggest immediate risk from drinking human blood would be the disease factors. In addition to those already listed - HIV, Hep A-C, etc. - there are also prion diseases like CJD that may be blood-transmissible, and parasites...

It just ain't healthy.

Wait, why would drinking your own nosebless give you an iron overdose? I get that drinking somebody else's blood could do that, but why would your own? I mean, the blood left your body and then re-enters it. Shouldn't the net iron be about equal?

I think someone mixed in some dubious "fact" from the great disinformation network re noseblood.