Placenta bandages have much more health benefits than risky placenta pills – a bio -engineer explains

Eating a placenta may not give you the health benefits that some people want you to believe, but Use it as a bandage could be able.

THE Placenta is an organ Created during pregnancy which provides nutrients to a growing fetus through an umbilical cord. It is generally large and relatively flat, made up of blood vessels, stems and immune cells and collagen. This does not seem particularly appetizing for most people, and those who have eaten places often mention a Unpleasant taste or smell.

But in the early 2000s, the practice of mothers eating their placenta after childbirth, claiming health benefits and mood improvement, Attracted general attention. This trend generally consists in putting your place in capsules that you can take as pills, and there are even companies that sell tailor-made products and to do yourself online.

While some mammals can eat their own placentas due to Limited nutritional resources In the wild, the advantages that people could withdraw from the consumption of placentas are not clear.

If it is boiled and dehydrated, the useful components of the placenta can be modified and reduced. If they are ingested raw, pathogens can remain on the surface of the placenta. In 2016, after a newborn hospitalized several times According to an infection potentially resulting from the mother ingesting her placenta, the mothers recommended by the centers for Disease Control and Prevention avoid taking placenta pills.

I cannot personally talk about the taste of the placentas. However, As a bio-gennieur Who designs materials to regenerate the injured bones and other fabrics, with my colleagues, I discovered a much clearer image of the advantages that placentas can offer as a biomaterial to repair injuries – if they are used correctly.

Placenta as biomaterial

Biomaterials are materials designed to interface with your body to repair damage. If you have burned your skin, for example, your doctor can use a biomaterial as a skin transplant To help your body repair damaged tissues, ideally providing nutrients to the damaged area to promote cell growth.

The researchers explored the recycling of the placentas, which are Often thrown After childbirth, like a type of biomaterial to push wounded tissues in patients. Because the placenta is rich in nutrients and stem cells which give it Antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and pro-regenerative Properties, this body is a particularly good candidate for medical applications.

Your body normally responds to an injury inflammationwhich is an immune reaction that eliminates stimuli and harmful pathogens, often causing swelling and pain around the injury site.

Unfortunately, sometimes this inflammatory process can become uncontrollable and cause chronic injuries and prevent healing. But biomolecules active in the placenta work Your immune system To promote repair by reducing inflammation and preventing the formation of scars.

For example, chronic diabetic feet ulcers are a difficult injury that closes and sometimes never drives feet. The researchers discovered that the use of biomaterials made up of partsa to treat these injuries has led to a rate of wound closing 6.24 times higher than conventional treatments. Researchers have also found that placenta -based biomaterials can Reduce scars after a heart injury.

I used human placentas in my own research to study how they work in a variety of wound repair scenarios. I can take a given placenta from a voluntary patient and eliminate factors that can negatively affect healing, such as all cells, blood and other components that can cause inflammation. Then I can take the material that remains – mainly containing essential growth nutrients and the tissue foundation in which cells lived – and use it to improve bone or Tendon repair.

In addition, placentas contain stem cells that can also be useful for medicine. These cells can be transformed into various other types of cells in your body. This can be particularly useful for repairing organs that are difficult to harvest cells directly, such as heart, liver and nerves. For example, placental stem cells can be added to a wounded heart and Become the heart cells themselves To help repair.

Researchers have also used stem cells in the placenta and umbilical cord for applications such as Transplantation of stem cells To treat disease and injury. Studies have shown that stem cells derived from the place transplanted into rats could Opposite Parkinson and nervous death. Placenta stem cells can also serve as a more promising source of cells to Cell transplantation therapies Compared to the stem cells of fat and bone marrow.

On your skin, not in your stomach

Places therefore have obvious health benefits. But why are they more useful as a biomaterial bandage than as a pill or food, considerations of side taste?

Unlike ingested placenta products – dried pills, jerky or placenta gross – biomaterials have undergone rigorous tests to make sure they are safe and effective. They are Treaty and manipulated In a controlled and often sterilized laboratory environment to ensure that no bacteria or other pathogen can enter the patient. Food and Drug Administration A Approved several placenta biomaterials For use in the clinic, in particular to treat diabetic wounds, surgical wounds and tissue replacement.

On the other hand, placentas and placenta products consumed at home may not receive appropriate treatment to kill the many harmful pathogens that can be present during transport. Treatment to transform placentas into something ingestion can also damage their beneficial components, resulting in an increase in health risks and reduction in advantages. No placenta product ingested has received approval from the FDA to date.

Eating placentas will not make you healthier. But science says that the application of a laboratory placenta biomaterial to a recent injury could speed up healing and cause smoother and scarcity skin.