Preface
Placenta Therapy
In my practice I employ placenta therapy for various diseases. I first learned of it
in 2001 when I worked at the Teppozu Clinic in Hacchobori, Tokyo.
The placenta is an organ temporarily created during pregnancy to protect andsupport a fetus in the mother’s body. Placenta therapy refers to treatments using
placenta essence extracted from human and animal placentas.
I had completed clinical resident training in both Western and Eastern medicine
when I began working at the Teppozu Clinic. I was attracted by a clinic thatemployed both.
I remember that the doctor who introduced me to the clinic said it was engaged
in placenta therapy, something not yet familiar. “You’d better stay away from that,”she said.
During my work there, however, I saw patients undergoing placenta therapy andgetting better. I came to see that the placenta is effective on various diseases
that barely respond to modern medicines. I believe seeing is believing. I also
believe that if the benefit to the patient is clear, and if a treatment is safe, then it
should be used even if “scientific evidence” cannot yet fully explain it. I started
using placenta therapy on my own patients and saw the same results.
At present, placenta therapy is as much a part of my practice as are Westernand Eastern medicines. When I see my patients getting better, I am thankful tohave come to know of it.
I hope readers of this may benefit from the same realization.

What is the Placenta?
Connects the Developing Fetus to the Mother● A temporary organ during pregnancy
The word placenta comes from the Latin word for cake. It is said that thedisk-shaped human placenta looks like a pancake. The name arose from that.
A placenta is an organ temporarily created during pregnancy to protect andsupport a fetus. Its role ends as soon as the baby is born, and it is expelled fromthe mother’s body.
In humans, beginning from a fertilized egg 0.1 millimeters in diameter, a fetus
grows to weigh three or four kilograms and measure about 40 centimeters longat the time of delivery, some 280 days after the egg and sperm join. The
placenta grows to a diameter of 15 – 20 centimeters, 1.5 – 3 centimeters thick,weighing about 500 grams.
● Supports development of the fetus
The placenta is connected to the fetus by the umbilical cord. Through a networkof blood vessels, the placenta serves to join the fetus and the mother –supplying oxygen and nutrients to the fetus, and managing digestion andexcretion.
It is also performs various functions, including secreting hormones andconferring immunity to disease, protecting the fetus as it grows within mother’sbody.
In the next section, we will look at the indispensible placenta more closely.

The Ultimate Organ● Complete in 13 Weeks
How is the placenta created in the mother’s body?
About a week after fertilization, small projections called villi begin growing fromthe membrane known as the chorion on the surface of the fertilized egg that has
become implanted on the uterine wall. Soon, only the villi on the attached side
continue to grow, connecting with the wall and developing into the placenta. By
about thirteen weeks after fertilization, the placenta is complete and has grown
to the size described in the previous section.
● Does the work of multiple organs
While the fetus has not yet developed organs such as lungs and a liver, theplacenta acts in their place, performing the following functions:・Respiration (lungs)
・Metabolism and detoxification (liver)・Excretion (kidneys)
・Internal secretion (pituitary gland, ovaries)
・Immunity (spleen)
・Digestion (small intestine)
In this sense, the placenta can be thought of as the “ultimate” organ.
● No mixing of blood
In the placenta, oxygen and nutrients carried in the maternal blood aretransferred to the fetal blood, and carbon dioxide and bodily waste pass in theopposite direction.
Maternal blood does not, however, come into direct contact with fetal blood.
Maternal blood occupies only the space between the villi. Fetal blood circulateswithin the villi. Accordingly, there is no chance of rejection of different blood
types, and the fetus is shielded from many conditions that may exist in themother.

Placenta Used as Medicine Since Before Christ● Hippocrates
Dried and powdered placentas have been used medicinally around the world
since ancient times. The great Greek physician Hippocrates (460 – 377 BC),
deemed the “Father of Western Medicine,” used it to treat patients, while[Egyptian queen] Cleopatra (69 – 30 BC) and Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793) [, awife of French King Louis XVI,] are said to have taken it as a beauty supplement.

● Appears in Chinese and Korean documents
In China, Qin Shi Huang (259 – 210 BC) and successive emperors are said tohave seen the placenta as the secret to eternal youth and longevity.
In the Ben Cao Gang Mu, (“The Compendium of Materia Medica”), a book on
Chinese pharmaceuticals written by Li Shizhen and published in 1596 during theMing Dynasty, the placenta appears as Ren Bao. The medicine He Che Da Zao
Wan, containing Zi He Che, was regarded as an analeptic, a restorative drug, forthe elderly and infirm.
In the Korean medical book Dongui Bogam, compiled by the royal physician Heo
Jun (1539 – 1615) and published first in 1613, the placenta is called Zi He Cheor Zi He Che Wan. It was mainly used as a treatment for mental conditions.
Medicinal placenta was first brought into Japan from China as a crude drug. In
the Edo period, Kongentan was an analeptic containing Zi He Che, and wasknown as one of the three “secret medicines” of the Kaga Domain.
● In Western Medicine
The placenta has been used as an herbal medicine for much of recorded history.
Dr. Vladimir Petrovich Filatov (1875 – 1956) of the Odessa National Medical
University in the former Soviet Union was the first to use it in Western-styletreatment. In the 1930s he developed a method of placental implantation(histotherapy), in which healthy tissue (skin and placenta) is, after beingsterilized, implanted under the skin.
● Injection agents developed in Japan
Placental implantation drew attention in Japan after the Second World War. The
diversity of potential uses and long-lasting effectiveness were welcomed, and it
was used in various therapies. Nevertheless, development of techniques andsafety protocols was a challenge, and actual cases of implantation were limited.
Independently of this, placental use in internal medicine was born out of
post-war research in Japan and continues to this day.
From implantation methods, injection agents made of placenta essence weredeveloped in the 1950s. They provided a vastly better experience for the patient
and were a great blessing for many as the benefits of placenta use became
more readily available.
Thereafter, placenta essence was applied to cosmetics in the 1970s and to oral
supplements in the latter half of the 1980s.
Placenta use in medical fields has continued to attract attention in recent years.