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I was posting my final message in the vegetarian vampires thread, when I came across an idea that had been stated before. Vampires don't need to feed or be fed blood, they do it to keep they're energy up. Therefore, I began to research blood on the internet, and the properties of blood that a vampire would need to feed on.

"Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells.

In vertebrates it is composed of blood cells suspended in a liquid called blood plasma. Plasma, which comprises 55% of blood fluid, is mostly water (90% by volume), and contains dissolved proteins, glucose, mineral ions, hormones, carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation), platelets and blood cells themselves. The blood cells present in blood are mainly red blood cells (also called RBCs or erythrocytes) and white blood cells, including leukocytes and platelets (also called thrombocytes).

The most abundant cells in vertebrate blood are red blood cells. These contain hemoglobin, an iron-containing protein, which facilitates transportation of oxygen by reversibly binding to this respiratory gas and greatly increasing its solubility in blood. In contrast, carbon dioxide is almost entirely transported extracellularly dissolved in plasma as bicarbonate ion.

Vertebrate blood is bright red when its hemoglobin is oxygenated. Some animals, such as crustaceans and mollusks, use hemocyanin to carry oxygen, instead of hemoglobin. Insects and some molluscs use a fluid called hemolymph instead of blood, the difference being that hemolymph is not contained in a closed circulatory system. In most insects, this "blood" does not contain oxygen-carrying molecules such as hemoglobin because their bodies are small enough that their tracheal system suffices for supplying oxygen.

Jawed vertebrates have an adaptive immune system, based largely on white blood cells. White blood cells help to resist infections and parasites. Platelets are important in the clotting of blood. Arthropods, using hemolymph, have hemocytes as part of their immune system.

Blood is circulated around the body through blood vessels by the pumping action of the heart. In animals having lungs, arterial blood carries oxygen from inhaled air to the tissues of the body, and venous blood carries carbon dioxide, a waste product of metabolism produced by cells, from the tissues to the lungs to be exhaled."

So, why does a vampire need blood?
Is it for plasma, red or white blood cells, or hemoglobin because vampires produce little of it or none of it?

Information taken from wikipedia.

I drink for the hemoglobin. Honestly though, as long as I feed regularly, I dont really seem to get hungry for much else, I dont seem to loose more than a couple of pounds here and there, and Im quite health.
You should check out PORPHYRIA for more scientific reasons why vampires need bloody

I don't think anyone needs blood, emphasis on the needs.
I read a book once about a guy who "needed" blood to drink, but he was completely crazy and thought that the mob was poisoning him, so he would kill people to drink their blood in hopes of cleansing his body. He also thought the poison was getting in to his body by means of the scum on the bottom of his soap bar.

Any being except vampires do not intake blood through mouth. If shortage of blood or operation period it my take it through artery but not by drinking it. It intoxicate the person who drinks the blood.

but why do they need to intake blood? Is for the plasma, hemoglobin, or white, red? That's my main question.

Well, then what defines a Saguine Vampire if they don't suck blood. Also, could you link to me some kind of document involving your theory, that Vampires don't drink/recieve blood.

What type of nutrients in the blood do they need to survive on?

As I stated in my first response here, for the documentation regarding the fact that the historical vampire did not drink blood... see my profile; it's all there.

As for the term "sanguinary vampire," this is a modern term invented by the Human "vampire community" to indicate those who attempt to emulate the fictional vampire by drinking a bit of blood every now and then. No such term exists prior to the 20th Century and has absolutely nothing to do with the actual historical vampire.


- Upir'

Well, if you want to go into the Historical Vampire point of view then why not go with the actual starting place of the Vampire Legend not to the 17th and 18th centuries but to, Sumerian Civilization.
Lamashtu was a female demon, monster, malevolent goddess or demigoddess who menaced women during childbirth and, if possible, kidnapped children while they were breastfeeding. She would gnaw on their bones and suck their blood, as well as being charged with a number of other evil deeds. She was a daughter of the Sky God Anu. (www.wikipedia.com/lamashtu)

What are we talking about here? Vampires... or mythological beings that sucked blood and/or ate flesh? And, no, there is nothing historically synonymous between the two.

The Slavic Vampire was historically reputed to "feast" not on blood but on sex. What has this to do with a Sumerian demoness that sucked blood?

The point is simply this: vampires never sucked blood, thus never needed blood to survive. Only in later fictions were they depicted as blood suckers.


- Upir'

Upir for the status of this forum, can we discuss whether or not vampires "suck blood" in the message discussions, and just stick to my original questions.

I thought I was addressing that very question: Do vampire need blood to survive? The answer, in my opinion, is no. As providing the reasoning for that opinion is not desired in this forum... what can I say? My apologies.

- Upir'

I'll make the assumption that vampires exist and need blood for purposes of your question. I would speculate the need might be related to some inability to produce adequate amount of one or all of the components of blood. The specific component needed might even vary from one vampire to the next.

Your question reminded me of a condition called myelodysplastic syndrome. The bone marrow creates blood stem cells which further develop into myeloid or lymphoid stem cells. Those stem cells finally develop into red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. So all our blood cells begin life in the same form.

With myelodysplastic syndrome the stem cells never mature to the final stage. It can be affect any of the specific blood cell types or it can be a combination of all. Patients with the condition may require regular transfusions just to function, in some cases even live.

Because the blood stem cell can develop into any blood cell leads me to wonder if the need might not vary from person to person. A whole lot of speculation and what ifs in that I'm afraid.