elev8 wellness
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour

wellblog

To Eat Or Not To Eat... Placenta?

12/9/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Placentophagy, or the eating-of-placenta, has enjoyed a pop culture surge in recent years. Thanks goes largely to celebrities who are famous for being famous for popularizing it. Other holistically-minded individuals hopped on board with the best of intentions. However, it's an ancient practice which never gained a ton of popularity among intelligent mammals (i.e. - humans) even in antiquity because it didn't demonstrate any reliable benefit. Modern researchers took the celebrities' claimed health-benefits seriously. They worked tirelessly to show what benefit there is, if any. To date, no dice. We're left with two shockers: 1.) famous entertainers aren't the fount of scientific and health expertise; 2.) respectable researchers are having to waste their time and our dollars countering what amounts to fad bro science.

Recent studies have failed to show any evidence of benefit for placentophagy:
https://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=179838&CultureCode=en

And so far, the only thing we know for sure, is consuming it is dangerous. The placenta is not inherently sterile, nor (even if it were) would it remain sterile via the birthing/after-birthing process. There are documented cases of infection from placentophagy; and so the CDC, late to the party as always, has finally begun to issue warnings against it. A slightly more sophisticated reader may parry, "well, that's why you cook it and/or freeze dry it in capsules." Unfortunately, that does nothing to toxins and the cell waste leftovers from dead bacteria (which is why you can still get severe food poisoning from thoroughly-cooked food).

There is no overabundance of nutrients in the postpartum placenta. Lab testing, however, does find lots of heavy metals in it. This is no surprise, since it serves as a filtration system for the fetus. Thus, like all filters, it will carry within it the very items we were preventing from entering the body. Imagine someone taking the oil filter out of her car and jamming it into the gas tank. Really, it's practically the same thing. Just because the oil filter is an important part of getting oil safely into moving parts does not make it an appropriate fuel source. Just because the placenta is an important part of getting fetus-specific nourishment safely into the fetus does not make it appropriate for anything else.

Now, in theory, it stands to reason that there would be some hormones within the placenta which may exert some benefit for the person consuming it. This is the last bastion of hope for placentophagy advocates. And, I admit, it sounds modestly reasonable. However, even if the infection and heavy metal exposure risks were somehow overcome, would the tiny remnant of hormones provide benefit?

The answer is a hard no. This may come as a surprise to people who thought placentophagy was a new idea; but researchers in 1980 found in rat studies that the effect was THE OPPOSITE: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7431335. Changes were nonexistent or detrimental, because, like the consumption of any exogenous hormone (like synthetic testosterone, birth control and other steroids), whatever trace amounts of hormone in the placenta are just enough to interrupt ones own natural endogenous production of the appropriate hormone balance.

Human studies are no more promising: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28859955.

There are a few people who, even when confronted with the reality that there is no benefit to placentophagy, still swear that they really experienced something positive. Maybe they did. The common placebo effect is the first explanation. The unscientific nature of anecdote compared against no control group is another. It's easy to believe you benefitted from an act you predetermined was good for you. Also, now that we know they likely suffered heavy metal poisoning and endocrine disruption, we can add temporary acute (or ongoing) lapse in mental and emotional faculty as a third possible explanation. This isn't an insult. Even small amounts of toxicity and exogenous hormones alter a person's brain and perception, sometimes permanently.

Of course, we can't discount the basic desire of people simply wanting a natural remedy for various postpartum ailments. I do. We all do. It would be great if there were a wonder drug, and that it happened to arrive divinely-delivered from the birthing experience itself. For some pre-scientific people, the placenta made sense as this magical cure. For modern people who can actually test, monitor, and manage nutrient, hormone and neurotransmitter levels, however, placentophagy is nonsense even if it did work. But it doesn't.

For people concerned about optimal health for mother and baby, there exist inexpensive tests to determine how high or low you are on just about any nutrient, hormone or neurotransmitter; and there exist inexpensive foods and supplements which can address those highs and low. There exist convenient and tasty foods which can genuinely accomplish even the most wildly-claimed (but unsubstantiated) alleged effects of placenta. Additionally, these actually-proven and effective foods and supplements won't give you heavy metal poisoning or your newborn baby a life-threatening infection. Test your blood for iron and eat some lentils or spinach. Test your neurotransmitter balance and eat some eggs and drink spring water. Test your steroidal hormones; wait; retest to see if they regularize and eat some healthy fats.

It’s true that many other mammals practice placentophagy. They also eat feces, their babies, vomit, rotted corpses, and each other; and they lack critical thinking, writing and reading skills. Interestingly, camels and sea-dwelling mammals do not eat their placenta. It may be hard to believe, but the vast majority of humanity got it right, and hyenas got it wrong. Less surprisingly, dolphins know better than Kim Kardashian. We don’t need to rethink our proper intuition that placentophagy was wrong in the first place.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Elev8 Wellness
    ​wellblog

    We strive to provide the latest articles and commentary on health, fitness, nutrition and vitality strategy.

    Archives

    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    July 2016
    June 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    Categories

    All
    Active Memory
    Age
    Business
    Cancer
    Coaching
    Dementia
    Diet
    Dna
    Elev8 Wellness
    Family
    Fat
    Fish Oil
    Genetics
    Gut Health
    Health
    Jonathan Watters
    Ketosis
    Leadership
    Life
    Memory
    Muscle
    Nutrition
    Optimisim
    Parkinsons
    Pessimism
    Probiotics
    Sales
    Spatial Intelligence
    Strength Training
    Weight Loss
    Weight-loss
    Wellness

    RSS Feed

Picture

LIVE. AWESOME.

We offer the highest quality in personal  fitness, nutrition, and mindset coaching, helping you achieve your fitness, health, wellness and performance goals no matter the obstacle. With virtual online training and private, in-studio training we make it easier to reach your wellness goals safely.

​No more can't. No more not good enough. If you compete in a sport, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the greatest. If you don't, let your mind no longer hold you back from being the best version of you that you can be.

Sign-up for a Tour
Covid Screen Waiver
​Elev8 Waiver
Become an Elev8 Instructor
Space Rental
LOGIN / MEMBER REGISTER

6244 lyndale ave. s., minneapolis, mn 55423
[email protected]
612-440-6877

© 2021 Elev8 Wellness LLC.  All Rights Reserved.                                              site map  |  contribute  |                                                           SITE BY  Sproute Creative
Photos from benzado, frankieleon, hatcher10027, Sterling College, OakleyOriginals, rawpixel.com, quinn.anya, allispossible.org.uk, wuestenigel, jeffdjevdet, Brian Legate, jeffreyw, Ray Larabie, katerha, AgĂȘncia Brasil, TheBetterDay, A. M. D.
  • Elev8 Wellness
    • About
    • Meet the team
    • Classes >
      • Women's Wellness Series
      • Elev8 Yoga
      • Elev8 Dance
      • Elev8 Kids Programs >
        • Elev8kids Summer Camp
        • Toddler Classes
    • Our Studios >
      • Rent Our Studio
    • Elev8 Recipes
  • WellBlog
    • Elev8 Weekly Thoughts
  • Services
  • Virtual Coaching
  • Contact
    • Take a Tour