“Vampires are feared everywhere, but the Balkan region has been especially haunted. Garlic has been regarded as an effective prophylactic against vampires. We wanted to explore this alleged effect experimentally. Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches instead. In strictly standardized research surroundings, the leeches were to attach themselves to either a hand smeared with garlic or to a clean hand. The garlic-smeared hand was preferred in two out of three cases (95% confidence interval 50.4% to 80.4%). When they preferred the garlic the leeches used only 14.9 seconds to attach themselves, compared with 44.9 seconds when going to the non-garlic hand (p < 0.05). The traditional belief that garlic has prophylactic properties is probably wrong. The reverse may in fact be true. This study indicates that garlic possibly attracts vampires. Therefore to avoid a Balkan-like development in Norway, restrictions on the use of garlic should be considered."
Thanks to Eugene for today’s ROFL!
August 19th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
OMG…
August 19th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Duh, they should have tested on bats instead of leeches! Honestly, I've heard that garlic does repel bats- that's where I think the legend about vampires originates.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
Everyone knows that garlic only affects the undead… Leeches are obviously immune to its effects.
August 20th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Owing to the lack of vampires, we used leeches instead.
Fantastic.
August 21st, 2009 at 11:30 pm
I love that the journal title translates to "Journal of practical medicine". After all, what's more practical than knowing how to prevent vampire attacks?
August 23rd, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Have they tested this on mosquitoes yet?
January 18th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Bats? What about porphyria?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porphyria#Vampires_and_werewolves
By the way they should have used dead leeches, to be fair…