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Porphyria is believed to be at the roots of the werewolf and vampire myths
We are often told that werewolves and vampires are only imaginary beings that make certain movies as great as they are. However, it could be that the appearance of both mythological killers is deeply connected in our own reality, in a condition known as porphyria to be more precise. Until not long ago, scientists did not know exactly what it was that triggered it, but now the connection between alcohol consumption and this terrible disease has been established.
This is the true story of Ken Walker, a hospital doctor who turned werewolf because of the customary bottle of wine he enjoyed every night. It all began a few years back, he tells the British Daily Mail, when he went on vacation with his wife to an exotic destination. He returned from there with a Hollywood tan, a strange occurrence for someone with a Scottish heritage like him. Since he was more than pleased with the way he looked, the blisters on his fingers and his sore toes did not bother him all that much, believing they might have been caused by touching some coral while on vacation.
When both his toe and finger nails started to come off, seemingly because of the liquid accumulated underneath them, and when he found out, the hard way, that the skin on the palm of his hands would come off if he simply rubbed them vigorously with a towel, he started to worry. He went to a dermatologist, because this was something he had never seen before, and, after running a series of tests, the diagnosis came back: he had porphyria cutanea tarda, just one of the 16 different varieties of porphyria that affect almost 3,000 Brits.
In my particular variety of porphyria, called porphyria cutanea tarda, one of the enzymes needed to make haemoglobin - the pigment that gives blood its color - was running low in my liver. Another pigment was trying to be haemoglobin, but hadn’t quite made it and was sloshing around in my system. Walker tells the Mail, explaining that, somehow, he had been spared the embarrassment of extra pigmentation in the eyes and on the teeth. However, he was still sensitive to direct sunlight, as it was this what made him lose his nails, and had already started to grow more facial hair where he had none before.
The cause of my condition was quite simple - too much booze. Even though I didn’t think I had been drinking that much, it was more than my liver could cope with. For a few years up to the sunny holiday that triggered my symptoms, I’d been downing increasing quantities of wine, despite my wife’s protests that I was drinking too much. Dependence on alcohol is easy to deny, especially given that alcohol is one of the best de-stressers known to mankind. Walker says.
He then recalls how he swore off alcohol altogether and, for almost two years, avoided direct sunlight, and wore gloves to protect his way too sensitive hands. He still needs to shave in places I never needed to before, he says, and his skin is still darker than before the condition was triggered but, at least, now he knows that his liver should be treated with more care. He also knows that, as embarrassing and ridiculous as it may sound, alcohol can turn you into a werewolf.
We are often told that werewolves and vampires are only imaginary beings that make certain movies as great as they are. However, it could be that the appearance of both mythological killers is deeply connected in our own reality, in a condition known as porphyria to be more precise. Until not long ago, scientists did not know exactly what it was that triggered it, but now the connection between alcohol consumption and this terrible disease has been established.
This is the true story of Ken Walker, a hospital doctor who turned werewolf because of the customary bottle of wine he enjoyed every night. It all began a few years back, he tells the British Daily Mail, when he went on vacation with his wife to an exotic destination. He returned from there with a Hollywood tan, a strange occurrence for someone with a Scottish heritage like him. Since he was more than pleased with the way he looked, the blisters on his fingers and his sore toes did not bother him all that much, believing they might have been caused by touching some coral while on vacation.
When both his toe and finger nails started to come off, seemingly because of the liquid accumulated underneath them, and when he found out, the hard way, that the skin on the palm of his hands would come off if he simply rubbed them vigorously with a towel, he started to worry. He went to a dermatologist, because this was something he had never seen before, and, after running a series of tests, the diagnosis came back: he had porphyria cutanea tarda, just one of the 16 different varieties of porphyria that affect almost 3,000 Brits.
In my particular variety of porphyria, called porphyria cutanea tarda, one of the enzymes needed to make haemoglobin - the pigment that gives blood its color - was running low in my liver. Another pigment was trying to be haemoglobin, but hadn’t quite made it and was sloshing around in my system. Walker tells the Mail, explaining that, somehow, he had been spared the embarrassment of extra pigmentation in the eyes and on the teeth. However, he was still sensitive to direct sunlight, as it was this what made him lose his nails, and had already started to grow more facial hair where he had none before.
The cause of my condition was quite simple - too much booze. Even though I didn’t think I had been drinking that much, it was more than my liver could cope with. For a few years up to the sunny holiday that triggered my symptoms, I’d been downing increasing quantities of wine, despite my wife’s protests that I was drinking too much. Dependence on alcohol is easy to deny, especially given that alcohol is one of the best de-stressers known to mankind. Walker says.
He then recalls how he swore off alcohol altogether and, for almost two years, avoided direct sunlight, and wore gloves to protect his way too sensitive hands. He still needs to shave in places I never needed to before, he says, and his skin is still darker than before the condition was triggered but, at least, now he knows that his liver should be treated with more care. He also knows that, as embarrassing and ridiculous as it may sound, alcohol can turn you into a werewolf.
