>VAMPIRE


Intellectual elites were drinking blood of young virgins / pre-pubescent children (due to hormones) for thousands of years now. Just few centuries ago there was a huge scandal in Hungary, because Queen Elizabeth Bathory admitted to killing countless of young virgins in order to drain their blood so she could drink it and bath in it, because as she claimed it rejuvenated her body / slowed aging process, which does work according to modern science: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2112829-blood-from-human-teens-rejuvenates-body-and-brains-of-old-mice/

Drinking human blood was also used as a crucial medicine for a rare, genetic disease called porphyria, which is the basis for the vampire myths, because porphyria causes buildup of dangerous chemicals in their own blood resulting in serious disease, however it could be treated to certain degree by drinking healthy peoples' blood. Porphyria causes gum receding and therefore falling out of teeth and because the two teeth (called fangs) have the deepest roots, they stay the longest and often the only teeth a person suffering from porphyria had. Additional effects of porphyria is photo-sensitivity, hence they avoided light and lived mostly during the night. Most of these people were members of European intellectual elites from royal and noble lineages (Vlad The Impaler: https://vector.childrenshospital.org/2017/09/gene-protoporphyria-blood-disorder/) due to inbreeding in these populations, which drastically increased chances of having genes that cause porphyria. People suffering porphyria did not fear garlic, they simply could not eat it, because it caused further issues:

"…garlic stimulates red blood cell and heme production, which results in a worsening of symptoms.", "…garlic might actually inflict pain and cause a person suffering from porphyria to become sick.": https://www.medicalbag.com/home/features/profile-in-rare-diseases/porphyria/