Eating your placenta isn’t actually good for you, study shows

Just because it seems like everybody else is doing it doesn’t mean you should.

Take, for example, eating one’s own placenta — a trend that has gained popularity over the past few years thanks to the alleged postpartum health benefits that come from doing so. Even a handful of high-profile celebrities have jumped on board.

Turns out, those health benefits are pretty much nonexistent. In fact, ingesting the placenta could actually be dangerous.

That’s according to a new study out of Northwestern University’s medical school, which involved a comprehensive review of 10 published studies involving placentophagy. Almost all nonhuman mammals practice palcentophagy, and many argue that in humans it can help prevent postpartum depression, speed up recovery and stimulate milk production.

“We found that women most frequently chose to engage in placentophagy for the perceived benefit of improved mood and energy recovery,” study author Dr. Crystal Clark, a psychiatrist specializing in reproduction-related mood disorders, told CBS News. “But when we looked at the animal studies, we were not able to find evidence that supported any of the health claims.”

Clark’s team found that animals that consume their placenta do so immediately after birth, whereas humans often capsulize it, cook it or even make smoothies out of it, CBS reported. Clark also noted that most women don’t consult their physician beforehand, and since there is a lack of studies surrounding placentophagy in humans, the potential risks are still unknown.

“Bacteria and elements such as mercury and lead have been identified in the post-term placenta, so if the theory is that we retain nutrients and hormones such as estrogen and iron that could be beneficial, then the question becomes what harmful substances can also be retained that could harm the mother or the baby if she is breastfeeding,” Clark told CBS.

After all, the placenta’s job is to filter toxins to protect the fetus, and there’s no way of knowing how many of those toxins remain when you eat it. Additionally, there are no regulations regarding placenta storage or dosing.

“Women choosing placentophagy who may otherwise be very careful about what they are putting into their bodies during pregnancy and nursing, are willing to ingest something without evidence of its benefits and, more importantly, of its potential risks to themselves and their nursing infants,” another study lead, Cynthia Coyle, told Today.

So why are people still doing it?

“Our sense is that people aren’t making this decision based on science or talking with physicians,” Clark told Today Parents. “Some women are making this based on media reports, blogs and websites.”

Some experts suggest that subjective reports of women claiming to have felt the benefits of ingesting their placenta could be the result of a placebo effect. To really get to the bottom of the potential advantages — and risks — more human research is needed, Clark said.“There hasn’t been any systematic research investigating the benefits or the risk of placenta ingestion,” Clark told Today. “The studies on mice aren’t translatable into human benefits.”