Placenta extract injections: the low-effort one, and the Japanese research behind it

Of everything I’ve tried on myself, this is the easiest. It’s a quick injection. There’s no drip and no hour in a chair. That’s also why I only do it now and then. When something is this easy and it’s always here, I put it off. This page covers what I noticed, what people tell me, and what I’ve read. Most of that reading comes from Japan, because that’s where most of the work on placenta was done.

 

Please read this first. The research on this page is summarised as I read it. Much of it was done in animals or in the lab, and none of it is a promise of any result. Where a condition is named, that’s what the researchers studied. It isn’t a claim that this treats it. Everyone responds differently, and a doctor has to assess you before anything is decided.

 

Why I tried it

Same reason as everything else here: we don’t offer anything we haven’t tried on ourselves first. I’ll add a second reason. What interests me is things that come from the body rather than a lab bench. We’re made of cells, and everything that repairs you is already in you. Placenta extract is about as biological as it gets. It’s the organ that fed you before you were born.

 

What I noticed

Soft, smooth skin, about a week or two later. That’s the honest whole of it for me. It’s also the thing most people mention to me, far more than anything else.

 

I’ve never had a side effect from it. I was fine is not the same sentence as you’ll be fine.

 

One more thing. Most of the time I have it alongside something else on the same visit, usually on a day I’m already in for something like NAD+. So I can’t cleanly tell you which one did what, and nearly everyone I’ve met is in the same position. I’d rather say that than pretend otherwise.

 

What people tell me

• One man had it together with NAD+. He said his skin felt nicer the day after. By day three, his hair had stopped falling out in the shower.

• Another did three days of NAD+ alongside placenta extract. He described more energy and clarity, skin looking more radiant, and hair growing faster.

• A woman came back for placenta extract with a vitamin top-up months after she’d had stem cells in her neck.

• One man came four times over a year and tried several things. What he wrote about afterwards was that he’d kept asking for more, and I told him no to what I didn’t think he needed.

• Several people who told me they had a real fear of needles said afterwards they barely felt it.

 

None of them had placenta extract on its own. Keep that in mind.

 

What it is

The explanation I was given is that the placenta is the organ that forms only during pregnancy, the one through which a mother’s body gives the baby nutrition and oxygen. The extract I use is made from human placenta and hydrolysed, meaning broken down into smaller components. In the womb it’s an all-purpose organ for the baby. The idea is to put that to use for overall health afterwards. It’s purely biological, and the approach follows established German and Japanese protocols.

 

What I was told is in it:

• Amino acids: leucine, lysine, valine, threonine, isoleucine, glycine, alanine and arginine

• Active peptides and proteins: albumin and globulin

• Mucopolysaccharides: hyaluronic acid and chondroitin

• Vitamins: B1, B2, B6, B12, C, D, E and niacin

• Minerals: calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc and iron

• Nucleic acids: DNA, RNA and metabolic products

• Enzymes: close to 100 varieties, including alkaline and acid phosphatase

• A cancer-suppressant protein (see below)

 

Growth factors, which are natural substances that stimulate cells to grow, multiply, heal and specialise:

• Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF): liver cells and various tissues

• Nerve growth factor (NGF): nerve cells

• Epidermal growth factor (EGF): skin, lung, cornea and airway lining

• Fibroblast growth factor (FGF): fibroblasts, glial cells and blood-vessel lining

• Insulin-like growth factor (IGF): cartilage and smooth muscle

• Platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF): wound healing

• Immune growth factors: colony-stimulating factor (CSF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1)

 

The part I find most interesting is collagen. The explanation I was given is that placenta extract stimulates new collagen, and not only in the skin, because collagen is in every organ you have. That may be why skin is the first place people notice it.

 

What the Japanese research describes

The growth factor story. The regenerative effect of HGF on the liver was first verified in 1984 by a team led by Dr Toshikazu Nakamura at Osaka University. Later research reported that the effect wasn’t limited to the liver. In animal studies it prevented tissue death and regenerated almost all organs. On 7 January 2001 the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun ran the headline “Cell Regeneration Drug to Begin Clinical Use”. It reported that in animal testing HGF worked against diseases of the liver, kidneys, lungs, digestive system, heart and blood vessels, muscles and nerves, including stroke, Parkinson’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease. People started calling it the “Happy Growth Factor”. HGF is one of the growth factors found in placenta.

 

Metastin. On 31 May 2001, Takeda Pharmaceutical published research in Nature on a peptide they named Metastin, made by a gene (KiSS-1) already known to suppress the spread of cancer. In mice, Metastin greatly reduced the spread of skin cancer to the lungs. Asahi Shimbun and Nikkei Shimbun both reported it the next day. The researchers found Metastin in large quantities in human placenta. This is a laboratory finding about one substance. People with active cancer aren’t treated. That’s on Safety questions I get asked too.

 

What it was described as doing. Researchers described placenta as having a wide range of functions: regulating the nervous system (especially the autonomic nervous system) and the hormonal system, raising resistance to illness, energising metabolism, removing active oxygen (an antioxidant effect), reducing inflammation, repairing tissue and calming. Other reported functions include strengthening the liver against toxins, promoting lactation, anti-allergy, circulation, blood production, suppressing mutations, regulating blood pressure and recovery from fatigue. Supporting hair growth appears on the list too.

 

The conditions doctors reported using it for. In Placenta Power: For Health and Beauty, Dr Kentaro Yoshida of the Yoshida Clinic lists conditions that many doctors reported placenta being used for:

• Gynaecology: menopausal symptoms, period pain, irregular periods, low milk supply, high prolactin

• Internal medicine: hepatitis, cirrhosis, chronic pancreatitis, diabetes, gastritis, indigestion, stomach and duodenal ulcers, ulcerative colitis, asthma, chronic bronchitis, high and low blood pressure, constipation, collagen disease

• Joints and pain: rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, arthritis, nerve pain, lower back pain, stiff shoulders

• Skin: atopic skin, psoriasis, body odour, eczema, chapped skin, spots, freckles

• Sleep and nerves: autonomic imbalance, sleeplessness

• Urology: enlarged prostate, cystitis, haemorrhoids

• Eyes: cataracts, allergic conjunctivitis, vision loss

• Ear, nose and throat: allergic rhinitis, Ménière’s disease, hay fever

• Teeth and gums: gum disease

• General: fatigue, feeling cold, a weak constitution, getting strength back during and after illness

 

He writes that its key feature is how broadly it applies: people treated for one thing often report other changes, like waking up refreshed, feeling less tired or having clearer skin. I’m passing that on as he wrote it.

 

Skin. The same body of work describes placenta for skin: blemishes disappearing, wrinkles reduced, a natural lift to sagging skin (a non-surgical facelift), hair regeneration and less hair loss, and a whitening effect. It also describes an effect on the “big three”: spots, wrinkles and acne, plus dry, rough and sensitive skin and skin ageing. The functions behind that are said to be regeneration of skin cells, cell growth, and better circulation in the skin. Later lab studies looked at inflammation, which in skin shows up as rashes such as atopic, seborrheic and contact dermatitis. In work by Sur and colleagues, placental extract significantly reduced induced swelling in the paws of rats. Shinde and colleagues found human placental extracts scavenged a range of free radicals. The extract contains the body’s own antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione peroxidase. The skin benefits are described as moisture, better texture, normal skin turnover and healthy skin, including sensitive skin. Soft and smooth is what I felt.

 

Joints. Human placental extract has been used for decades in Japan and China, and has been reported to have wound-healing, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. For osteoarthritis, the explanation is threefold. The anti-inflammatory function works against the pain. The tissue-repair function supports damaged tissue. And IGF supports the growth of cartilage and smooth muscle. Professor Kazuhito Asano’s team at Showa University found high levels of active oxygen in the joints of 40 osteoarthritis patients and 19 rheumatoid arthritis patients, and none in healthy joints. On average the levels were 2.5 times higher in osteoarthritis and five times higher in rheumatoid arthritis. They concluded active oxygen was damaging the joint. Placenta extract has been shown to remove active oxygen. My own joint story is a different treatment. It’s on Stem cells for joints.

 

Nerves. Diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage that can come with diabetes. Symptoms range from pain and numbness in the feet to problems with internal organs such as the heart and bladder. Some nerve pain comes from inflammation rather than pressure. The explanation given is that placenta’s anti-inflammatory function works on that, and its circulation function helps blood move through the small vessels of the limbs and shoulders.

 

An old idea

Most mammals eat the placenta after giving birth, cats and dogs and even cows and horses. One explanation is that it helps the mother get her strength back. In Japan, the tradition until recently was to keep the placenta and umbilical cord on the family altar and pray for the child’s growth. People have been paying attention to this organ for a long time.

 

The instructions I was given

Before:

• If possible, avoid anti-inflammatory and blood-thinning medicines and supplements for two weeks beforehand. The list I was given: aspirin, ibuprofen and other NSAIDs, vitamin E, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, St John’s wort, and omega-3 or fish oil. The reason given is that they raise the chance of bruising and swelling after an injection.

 

After:

• No heavy exercise on the day. Exercise can resume the next day.

• Keep the injection site clean and dry.

• No swimming and no hot tub for 24 hours. The reason given is to avoid a heat reaction or infection.

• Walking and gentle movement are fine in the first 24 hours.

 

Your doctor will give you your own list.

 

Questions I get asked

I’m scared of needles. Is it bad?
Plenty of the people I’ve met said they’d been dreading it and barely felt it. For me it’s the easiest thing I do here.

 

How soon did you notice anything?
About a week or two, and it was my skin. Some people have told me they noticed something the next day. Everyone is different.

 

Did you have side effects?
Never. That’s my experience, not a promise.

 

Do you do it on its own?
Mostly not. I usually have it on a day I’m already in for something else.

 

Do you still do it?
Now and then. It’s always here, which is exactly why I put it off.

 

Where does it come from?
Human placenta, hydrolysed.

 

Is it part of the fertility preparation?
It’s one of the things in it. That page is here: IVF and fertility.

 

More from NAD+ & more: All of them · NAD+ · Young blood plasma · PRP

 

It’s the one I forget to do, and I still don’t regret doing it. If you want to ask me about it, I read these myself.

 

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I’m George. Thirty years in business, then ten years trying this whole field on myself before offering it to anyone else.

This is where I write down what I use, what I stopped using, and what I’d never do again. More about me →