Scientific Studies & News Articles
The Placenta is such an amazing organ! Now doctors have discovered that using placenta and amniotic sac tissue as grafts can help heal eye injuries, burn victims, and those with chronic wounds that have difficulty healing. Beyond eye and wound care, some doctors are employing the grafts in creative ways. Neurosurgeons have used amniotic membrane grafts to repair the layer of connective tissue around the brain called the dura and to prevent the formation of scar tissue that can cause paralysis after spinal surgery. Among gynecological Even though the placenta is technically foreign tissue, placental grafts have been found not to prompt an immune response in transplant recipients. That means, unlike skin grafts from animals or cadavers, placental grafts are basically not rejectable. The placenta’s tissue also contains proteins and sugars that spur patients’ cells to multiply quickly, and the grafts have been shown to encourage rapid skin and tissue regrowth. Read the full News Article here: Placentas Gain Ground for Skin Grafts Healing Burns - News Article
This is an older Scientific Study that explores why mammals consume their placenta and how placental consumption in humans may improve milk production and breastfeeding. Read the full Scientific Study here: Placenta Lactagogon - Scientific Study This study, in part, focuses on how placental consumption can actually increase the effectiveness of opioids given for pain relief! The Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor (POEF), found in the placenta, is responsible for enhancing the pain relieving effects of opioids, resulting in less opioids needing to be taken or opioids needing to be taken less often. Read the full Scientific Study here: Enhanced Opioid Analgesia - Study - Kristal
This scientific study tested the affects of human placental extract (HPE) on wound healing and, in the treated group, found a significant lowering of wound size, wound index, and number of days required for full healing. Read the full Scientific Article here: Wound Healing Activity of Placenta - Scientific Study Iron deficiency affects more than 1 in 10 women 0 to 6 months’ postpartum in the US and, while it disproportionately burdens low-income populations, its common occurrence overall signals that iron deficiency is a problem that should concern all clinicians who care for postpartum women. Because iron deficiency alters aerobic capacity and endurance, as well as cognition and mood, it has the capacity to diminish productivity associated with both physical and intellectual work. Read the full Scientific Article here: Postpartum Iron Deficiency - Review Article In this online survey, 189 women over the age of 18 who had ingested their placenta after the birth of at least one child, were asked a series of questions regarding their personal experience with placentophagy. The survey was conducted between October and November of 2010. When asked to rate how positive their experience was on a Likert scale, the majority of women (75%) reported that placentophagy was a "very positive experience", and 20% reported that it was a "positive experience". Four percent of participants described it as "slightly positive" and 1% of participants selected "not positive". When asked to rate how negative their experience was on a similar Likert scale, 92% reported that this experience was "not negative", 7% chose "slightly negative", less than 1% said "negative", and less than 1% said "very negative". Participants were asked to list both perceived positive and negative effects of placenta consumption, if any were experienced. Analysis of participant Nearly all participants (98%) indicated that they would participate in placentophagy again. Postpartum women in the sample reported that they believed placenta consumption was very effective in helping improve their overall mood, and energy was the second most commonly reported positive effect. Nearly all respondents indicating a "positive" or "very positive" experience with placentophagy, reported that they would engage in the practice again with subsequent children. In fact, both of the participants who selected "negative" or "very negative" to describe their experience also indicated that they would engage in placentophagy again. Read the full Survey here: Placentophagy Survey - Selander Cantor Young Benyshek 2013 This is an older scientific study that explores the reasons why all mammals across the world participate in placentophagy. Read the full Scientific Article here: Biobehavioral - Study - Kristal This study explored the effects of fatigue on postpartum depression. Results support the hypothesis that early postpartum fatigue is predictive of postpartum depression. Fatigue as early as 7 days postpartum is predictive of depression at Day 28 postpartum. Read the full Scientific Study here: Fatigue Predictor for Postpartum Depression - Clinical Study This Article is a review of literature that explores the correlation between hormonal changes after giving birth and depression symptoms in the postpartum mother. During pregnancy, levels of Estrogens (estradiol, estriol, and estrone) and Progesterone rise steadily, in large part as a result of placental production of these hormones. With removal of the placenta at delivery, Estrogen and Progesterone levels drop sharply, reaching pregravid levels by the fifth postpartum day. This sudden drop in hormone levels could potentially lead to postpartum depressive symptoms. Read the full article here: Hormonal Changes and Postpartum Depression - Review Article - Hendrick GBS is an extremely common occurrence and something that comes up often in regards to the safety of Placenta Encapsulation. Tree of Life Placenta Encapsulation always dehydrates the placenta at a high enough temperature to kill off any potential bacterial growth, and it is always recommended that any GBS+ clients have their placenta processed using the Gentle Prep Method, which utilizes steaming before dehydration, just as an added level of protection. This Study explored the safety of placental consumption in regards to GBS and E Coli. To investigate the potential neonatal health risks of this behavior, the present study focused on microbial colonization of processed placenta preparations with potentially pathogenic bacteria Streptococcus agalactiae (Group-B-Streptococci; GBS) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). Heat processing significantly reduced the number of colony forming units for GBS and E. coli. Their results suggest placentophagy of processed tissue is an unlikely source of clinical infection. Read the Abstract here: Impact of Tissue Processing on Microbiological Colonization in the Context of Placentophagy This is an older Study that explored the iron content of placentas and umbilical cords. Read the full Study here: Iron Content of Intact Placentas - Scientific Study The aim of this study was to determine whether iron deficiency anemia (IDA) in mothers alters their maternal cognitive and behavioral performance, the mother-infant interaction, and the infant’s development. This study demonstrates that there is a strong relation between iron status and depression, stress, and cognitive functioning during the postpartum period. Read the full Scientific Study here: Iron Deficiency and Emotional Wellbeing and Cognition - Scientific Study According to a new hypothesis proposed by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford., the placenta, and the hormones it produces, may have played a crucial role in the evolution of the human brain, while also leading to the behavioral traits that have made human societies able to thrive and expand. Read the full Article here: Placenta and Hormone Levels in the Womb may have been Key Drivers in Human Brain Evolution - News Article This Article reviews the studies and literature that currently exist regarding Placenta Encapsulation and its possible health benefits. Read the full Article here: Placenta Ingestion Health Benefits - British Journal of Midwifery The placenta is arguably one of the most important organs in the body. It influences not just the health of a woman and her fetus during pregnancy, but also the lifelong health of both mother and child. Despite its importance, we know little about this critical but temporary organ. NICHD's Human Placenta Project is a collaborative research effort to understand the role of the placenta in health and disease. The project supports development of new tools to study the organ in real time to learn how it develops and functions throughout pregnancy. *Check out this Placenta Fact Sheet Learn more about the Human Placenta Project here: Human Placenta Project This cross-sectional study was to assess the nutrients in terms of protein, fat, minerals, and hormones in heat-dried human placenta. Read the full Study here: Nutrients and Hormones in Heat-Dried Placenta - 2000 J Med Association The largest study of its kind found mothers who consumed their placenta passed on no harm to their newborn babies when compared to infants of mothers who did not consume their placenta. Read the full Scientific Article here: Maternal Placenta Consumption Causes No Harm to Newborns Ingestion of placenta or amniotic fluid produces a dramatic enhancement of centrally mediated opioid antinociception in the rat. The present experiments investigated the role of each opioid receptor type (μ, δ, κ) in the antinociception-modulating effects of Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor (POEF—presumably the active substance). This finding of POEF action as both opioid receptor-specific and complex provides an important basis for understanding the intrinsic pain-suppression mechanisms that are activated during parturition and modified by placentophagia, and important information for the possible use of POEF as an adjunct to opioids in pain management. Read the Scientific Study here: Placenta ingestion by rats enhances δ- and κ-opioid antinociception, but suppresses μ-opioid antinociception
surgeons, the grafts have proved effective at stopping scarring in the uterus after surgery for endometriosis. Orthopedic surgeons have found they can help repair torn cartilage during knee surgery. The National Institutes of Health lists hundreds of ongoing or completed trials using birth tissue in a range of procedures, including carpal tunnel, erectile dysfunction, arthritis, irregular heartbeat, tooth extraction and breast reconstruction.
responses identified the following themes associated with perceived positive effects: balance; improved mood (i.e., alleviated symptoms of
the baby blues or a mood disorder, or otherwise elevated mood); prevented or treated anemia; improved lactation; increased energy/decreased
fatigue; alleviated postpartum bleeding/discharge (i.e., decreased duration, intensity of lochia); increased strength/vitality; improved/accelerated recovery; weight loss; prevented/relieved headaches (i.e., decreased the frequency or intensity of headaches); facilitated bonding with infant (i.e., spent more time with or felt closer to the infant); reduced pain (i.e., decreased the use of pain medication postpartum); treated/prevented hypothyroidism (i.e., alleviated symptoms of hypothyroidism or improved thyroid function); replenishment/regulation of hormones; increased/improved duration or quality of sleep; uterine involution (i.e., rapid return of uterus to pre-pregnancy size); facilitated postpartum healing/recovery (particularly after caesarian birth); and increased libido.
Analysis of participant responses regarding negative perceived effects of placenta consumption revealed the following categories: unpleasant taste
or smell of placenta/capsules (including belching); difficulty remembering to take capsules; increased uterine cramping; increased vaginal bleeding; limited supply of capsules (i.e., the amount of capsules did not last through the postpartum recovery period); digestive difficulty (i.e., the capsules
caused upset stomach, or other digestive complications); contraindicated with infection (i.e., inability to take capsules while treating an infection);
increased frequency/intensity of hot flashes; affected infant (i.e., the baby developed a skin rash); inconvenient preparation process; social stigma
(from friends, family or themselves); developed mastitis; affected mood (i.e.,
increased anxiety or excessive energy); increased nausea; excessive lactation; increased constipation; increased heartburn; increased skin blemishes; and
cost to encapsulate.