At long last, here is Part 2 of the AAA conference session paper summaries. If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here.
Dr. Daniel Benyshek presented the preliminary data from our intra-placental comparison study, where we look at what my method of preparation does to certain analytes in the placenta. Encouragingly, NONE of the analytes we’ve looked at thus far have been destroyed by processing! In fact, ferritin (the form of iron) actually increased. Also reported at the session were Active B12, Prolactin and Cortisol. I will share these results more fully after I get the details from Dr. Benyshek on what I can actually report. But we are all excited about this preliminary data.
Sharon Young, who is also on our research team and helped incredibly with the previous study, presented the preliminary data from her ongoing research study into sight and smell aversion of the placenta. She only has numbers from the first part of her study, but she was seeing that men and (non pregnant) women did not have a particular fondness for the sight or smell of placenta. Surprise! 🙂
Jeanne DiPirro went over some of her research on pain relief offered by the placenta. Her work centers around the concept of a molecule contained within the placenta, dubbed POEF, or Placental Opioid Enhancing Factor. This molecule, it is found, is a powerful analgesic. However, POEF is found in high concentrations within the amniotic fluid as well. Ms. DiPirro, seeing my ever-expanding belly, has encouraged me to capture my amniotic fluid and drink it for pain relief during labor and for the pains after the birth of this baby. As though eating my placenta weren’t strange enough – I can just imagine my partner’s face when I begin sucking down a cup of amniotic fluid!
Once I present the official, detailed findings to our PBi Specialists, I will write up another blog entry or do a webinar to present the data more widely. Since most of our research is as-yet-unpublished, I can’t release too many of the details until we submit our papers for peer review. However, I will share as much as I can with everyone. Thank you for your continued interest in placenta research!