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one day i was on my computer and watching tv as i often do and a show about Vlad Dracula was on.

now in this show they brought up vampires.......now as my attention was half on the pc and half on the tv this fact that i heard about vampiers didnt really register until a few hours later when the show was over

i heard that there is a rare blood disease that attacks the eyes and make them sensitive to light and going out into the day light without sunglasses gives the person headache's.

i was wondering if anyone else has heard of this or was it just my imagination ?

There is definitely "Photophobia" which is a real disease. There is also the skin type of Lupus disease where people feel discomfort when the sun light shines on the skin. However, I doubt that any of them are so powerful that would literaly keep a person out of the sunlight all the time. But maybe I am wrong...

thats good to know cause i cant go into the day light without my glasses on.....even on cloudy days without getting headache's.

There are actual conditions that makes people photosensitive and their skin overly-reactive to the sun.

Plus some people are even allergic to the sun. I have some friends that are.

ive never heard of people been fully allergic to the sun, but i've heard of people been extreley sensitive to the sun. i mean i dont go down too well with the sun (it gives me headaches and hurts my eyes alot) but this is due to me having a black bedroom which i spend most of my time in, so my eyes have become more used to the darkness.

i just read an article on "Photophobia" and yes thats what i have. but my skins not sensitive to the sun just my eye's.

There are children born with the disease...I'll look up the name...they can die from severe burns from the sun and even die from it...they wear NASA designed spacesuits ...so they can go out in the sun

I am sure that there are several disorders out there that would affect people in different ways but my question is what does any of this have to do with vlad drakul. He was made a vampire in the movies. In reality vlad drakul was not a vampire at all

im not talking about the one in the movies. im talking about the real Vlad, the one who was turned into a vampier by Stoker, and in the show they called this disease the vampire disease.

Is it possible to have a sun allergy? I get hives if I'm in the sun for more than a few minutes.

answer:Yes, it is possible to have a sun allergy — although it is not a true allergy. In sensitive people, sun exposure activates inflammatory cells or proteins in the skin, which triggers hives (solar urticaria).

Certain medications and conditions also can cause increased sensitivity of the skin to sun exposure (photosensitivity). But in such cases, reactions are usually red rashes, not hives.

If you have sun allergy, you can reduce your risk of a reaction by:

Limiting your time in the sun
Wearing sunglasses and protective clothing when you're outside
Your doctor may also recommend the use of antihistamines to prevent or reduce a reaction. Using sunscreen may offer some protection. But sunscreens don't block out ultraviolet rays completely, so you may still experience a skin reaction.

I know for a fact there there is the diease that harms people if the go out in the sun with special because it causes a weird burn on them

ya uhm i just posted somethign about it

Xeroderma pigmentosum: A genetic disease characterized by such extraordinary sensitivity to sunlight that it results in the development of skin cancer at a very early age. Children with xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) can only play outdoors safely after nightfall. They have been called midnight children, the children of the dark, the children of the night and, perjoratively, vampire children.

XP is due to defective repair of damage done to DNA (the genetic material), damage caused by ultraviolet (UV) light. Whereas normal persons can repair UV-induced damage by inserting new bases into the DNA, XP patients lack the normal capacity to repair the DNA damage inflicted by UV light.

A person with XP develops severe sunburn and eye irritation within minutes of exposure to sunlight. Other signs of XP include the development of ultradry skin (the word "xeroderma" means extreme dryness of the skin) plus blisters, heavy freckling and dark spots on the skin (the word "pigmentosum" refers to these pigmented areas of skin).

Damage to DNA is cumulative; it is additive and cannot be reversed. Recurrent exposure of a XP person to UV light can cause the rapid development of cancerous and non-cancerous growths on both the skin and eyes. Even children with XP can develop skin cancer. About one in every five XP patients also develops one or more of the following problems: blindness, deafness, mental retardation, poor coordination, spasticity, or retarded physical growth.

The life span of XP patients varies. Those with undiagnosed XP who regularly expose themselves to sunlight may die young of skin cancer. Those with a diagnosis of XP who protect themselves from sunlight may live a long life. The life expectancy of most patients falls between these extremes.

Diagnosis requires tests on skin or blood samples. Although the disease itself is incurable, patients can maintain their health by:

protecting themselves completely from ultraviolet light,
getting frequent skin and eye examinations, and
having cancerous growths removed without delay.
XP is inherited as an autosomal recessive trait (meaning that the gene for XP is on a nonsex chromosome [an autosome] and that a person must possess two doses of that gene to manifest the syndrome). In actuality, XP is not one disease. A number of diseases clinically paint the XP picture. Genes for XP reside in diverse locations including chromosomes 3p25, 9q22.3, 11p12-p11, and 19q13.2-q13.3.


From medterms.com

Hope this helps a little.

It's nice to actually get some true information on it.

I'm not sure if this has been added to the pot of ideas, but:

Fibromyalgia:
http://www.niams.nih.gov/hi/topics/fibromyalgia/fffibro.htm

A few people I know have this (though I haven't known of the official name until rather recently), and it causes increased sensativity to everything including the sun.

Real information is what we all Seek Ma petite some are more truthful about it than others

Well noted, darling. Knowledge is power in this age.

I woudl agree as long as you can stay level headed and not lose it when someones questions you about your beliefs and thoughts

There are even people born very white skinned,have very light hair with red eyes who can't go out wihout wearing sunglasses or else it will cause them a great damage.

The closest thing I know to a person being "allergic" to the sun are albino Children. There eyes are also EXTREMELY sensitive to not just sunlight, but any light. A girl I know has an albino child, her irises are pink/pinkish, she is, maybe 5 years old, and she has to were sunglasses in Wal-Mart and the lights there are only flourescent.

As everyone ele has said, there are real conditions, whether they be serious or mild, and there are some simple genetic reasons for these reactions; for example, I have always been very pale, and therefore i can't stay out in the sun, as I burn instead of tanning within about 10 minutes! As with most things, this could be constued in either direction.

I think some things are psychosematic. Those who truly believe they are a vampire (in the mythical sence rather than HLV's) like a hypochondriac, people will start to feel or (sub)consciously invent conditions to suit their lifestyle.

On a side note, I am not saying that a lot of people do this (before everyone get's their pitch forks out) :-)

Actually I have heard it and I believe I know what it is called. Proferia I think is the name. Symptoms are sentive skin and eyes to sunlight, the host becomes anemic, they become allergic to garlic. If this isn't the correct thing I'm putting down here I'm sorry, I hope I gave you what you needed

I think you have mixd in several mythical vampric superstitions with porphyria, but a good post none-the-less.

I ask about one thing and got a whole lot of info on a lot of stuff. all of this info is very useful and offers a lot of knowledge. thanks to everyone who posted here.

as long as i ware sunglasses my eyes are fine and i get no headaches when i go outside. but when my hayfever is acting up my eye's become more sensitive than they already are and sometimes i cant even drive at night because of the headlights of on comming traffic.

i have a total sun allergy, whe i go out in it all i do is sneeze and i feel that it drains my energy. i usually sleep all day and stay up all night. but i am not vampire, i am a natural witch

well i have heard about a condition that makes you sensitive to light but i dont think its a disease though..but to tell you the truth i could be wrong.

Actually there is a diease..I don't recall the name of it..I think it might have been mentioned..it's not persay related to Vampires, but there was a story few years back regarding two little girls that were allergic to the sun..they would blister and become deathly ill. I don't recall the name of them, I even believe there was a movie about it..
I have to have my shades..

I know people who cannot be in the sunlight at all. I prefer some light ...

aye i agree there are 2 little girls that can only go out at night time i read up on them in highschool when i was still going, i found it vary interesting really. i remember a part saying that one of the twins was so mischeavious that she would make a brake for the door wanting to go out in the day time, not knowing what dangers lie on the other side for her but she stil wanted to. a fue other people have been dyignosed with the same sickness a friend of mine is the same way he literly has to have his windows blacked out his whole room is compleatly black cause of this sickness, the name of the desease iludes me curently but i can find it if any ones cureosity strikes them

that is the movies vlad was never a vampire

There are diseases that make people really sensitive to the sun.

There is a disease, and the name of it is Xeroderma pigmentosum

there are several different diseases that cause these types of effects on the body

i have never heard of a rare disease that causes that. for me though i had an eye surgery a few years ago and it made my eyes so sensitive that i can't go anywhere without really good sunglasses and i even have to wear them inside and outside when it isn't even sunny out. i hate it but it gives me a better reason to love the dark....lol.

yes, there are people who are sensitive to the sun, but most of them are albino, they have no pigment so they are very sensitive to heat and light.

One of my neighbors has one of those diseases. Both her and her son. I'm out all the time, especially out at night, and I've only seen them twice. My mom tends to their yard for them.
Shadowgirl

I think Echo is pretty spot on in the rare cases where a living person was thought to be a vampire. Porphyria could cause many of the symptoms that were attributed to vampirism. Most noted of these would be a sensitivity to sunlight which in severe cases could result with a reaction of blisters or swelling, and the lips and gums can pull back to look like fangs...other symptoms would include trouble digesting food and the fact that a sun allergy would lead to a nocturnal behavior.

That being said, most cases of 'vampirism' (in Europe Europe anyway) usually involved someone who was already dead. Their coffin was dug up and they appeared to have not decayed. Gases in the body can also cause a corpse to contract and bend which would look like it sat up if its coffin were opened. Other features like blood escaping the mouth were signs of vampirism in a corpse. If there was a disease spreading around a village, it would usually spread with the family of the first victim. So you have a recently dead family member coming back to 'feed' on his relatives. In these cases, a disorder was probably not as likely a culprit as disease.

I heard of people allergic to the sun where they can go out only at night due to the fact that the sun causes such an bad allergic reaction that they could die

Yes, photophobia is a real disease. Of course, many just dislike the feel of the sun and avoid it, until, in the end, the sun actually can hurt their no longer accustomed skin and eyes. A lot of people tend to make their own vampires.
Not that vampires aren't real, of course.

Photophobia is a psychological condition which causes a chosen aversion to bright light.

Not a disease last time I checked, though you could call mental illness a disease, in a way.

yea i have the sun and the easily burnt skin and thats y im up most nyts. but there was a family in america who couldnt go outside and were confined indoors theres a thread here somewhere bout them.

I too have also heard of some of these disorders.

I have heard og these skin disorders as well. There is also an eye condition, I can't remember the name, that causes people to be very sensitive to light. It is caused by the eye taking in to much light at one time which can cause headaches or worse depending on the how much light is taken in. During the day these people have to wear speically tinted glasses even inside to protect thier eyes. Now the interesting thing is that they see better at night then most people can because their eyes can use more of the avilable light .

I seen a documentary on one of those discovery/travel type channels that told of a disease that some children had where they could only go out at night due to severe rashes and blisters forming on the skin when they went out in the daylight. The disease they had would prevent them from going to school, and other events, they had to be wrapped up in dark blankets to be taken to the doctors during daylight hours. There was another forum post on this type of disease earlier on if u look through the forums u will find more on this subject.

I'm not sure if the eyes have anything to do with it but I know of the disease Lupus. But I know if you are a indoor person and do not get much sunlight or you avoid sunlight then yes it does sting a lot when you do eventually walk outside.

I have gotten headaches for so long from the bright lite...but besides just blood conditions eye color plays a role in sensitivity as well...light color eyes are more sensitive than dark color eyes. I know a person with lupus and yes they had to keep out of the light or keep most of the skin covered if she was gonna be out for any amount of time...and yes I have heard that Vlad Dracula/Tepes did have a rare blood disease.

yeah there all the sicknesses that make you sensitive to light and all the jazz
ususally those types of people also have relaly weak immune systems and get sick very easily.

i also heard that the disease, Anemia, can cause you to crave "blood" due to the lack of it in your body. Lack of blood/Lack of healthy blood cells.
Im not sure if thats completely true but wouldn't exactly doubt it.

i've heard of diseases that effect sunlight sensitivities, been trying to find out why my eyes are so light sensitive. i have a normal immune system and as far as i know from my last blood test i'm heathy so it remains a mystery. only came on around mid teenage years, never really got headaches from it but go blind as a bat and cant keep my lids open. sort of hurts a little when i get in the shade and try to adjust my eyes though

yeah i have a hard time seeing during the day..
its just way too bright out.
its probably one of the reasons i prefer cold weather
all dark and cloudy

i have not heard that. but you could always go and do reasearch to see about it. Which you might have already done and others who have responded to this might have.

I still need to get around to doing research to see if this disorder that I heard from CSI(yes that show is good...
) is real.

Unsure if anyone has mentioned this.

But in the show this woman would kill people and take the main organs that held like protien or something and make it into a powder and drink it. She was like a vampire. Because the sun would distort her skin and she'd be weak or something like that.

one day i was on my computer and watching tv as i often do and a show about Vlad Dracula was on.

now in this show they brought up vampires.......now as my attention was half on the pc and half on the tv this fact that i heard about vampiers didnt really register until a few hours later when the show was over

i heard that there is a rare blood disease that attacks the eyes and make them sensitive to light and going out into the day light without sunglasses gives the person headache's.

i was wondering if anyone else has heard of this or was it just my imagination ?

this is pothofobia ,when you eys are very sensitive to light,and some people are sensitive to de sunlight like me,i hate the day and the sun and light,have to wear glasses all the time if i go out during lightday,well i never do it really,tht deoends too in the kind of skyn and if you are more a daylight person or night person,i am a night creature .

I have a cousin that is photosensitive, he cant go out in the sun for long periods of time or it starts peeling his skin off, and if he dont were sunglasses he could go blind

Have you seen "The Others" i think that their disease might be related,

you most likely heard correctly. there are a ton of different viruses and diseases and medical conditions that could have made people think someone was a vampire.

even albinos with their pale skin and hair could be targets when fear takes place.