In the final of the Champions League held last Saturday in Lisbon, Diego Costa could only play 9 minutes of the 90 promised by his healer, highlighting the mysterious treatment with mare placenta that she had applied days before in Belgrade, on a trip made on purpose. The stem cells extracted from the equine organ are the main component of the cream that, applied by means of a skin massage and combined with mild electric shocks, achieves the regeneration of muscle tissue in a matter of days. The Hispanic soccer player did not suffer the same fate as the players who had advised him for therapy and had to leave the field with his fibrillar micro-tear intact.
What is certain in the effectiveness of these alternative therapies?
From Muy Interesante, we have contacted the sports medicine specialist and president of the Spanish Federation of Sports Medicine, Dr. Pedro Manonelles, to ask him if it is possible to regenerate a muscle injury by applying stem cells topically, that is, through the skin. “Absolutely not. There is no scientific work (but no other) that has been communicated and that explains this supposed regeneration ” , affirms the doctor. Regarding the improvement that some footballers claim to have experienced in record time, Manonelles insists that the placebo effect should not be overlooked. “It is not even about alternative medicine. I do not know the reason why some athletes resort to esoteric methods. You would have to ask them, but surely it has to do with the idiosyncrasies of some athletes who do, let’s say, very strange things. In certain contexts, the application of good sense and treatments that are perfectly regulated and established have little appeal although, in the end, it is these that logically end up solving the problem ”, concludes the specialist.
In the midst of the “boom” of naturopathic therapies, we find another even more controversial and doubtful: placentophagy or the practice of ingesting the human placenta after childbirth, especially popular in countries such as the United Kingdom and China. This custom has resurfaced after millennia and has managed to seduce the detractors of regulated medicine. According to Dr. Manonelles, “some species of mammals eat the placenta, but these are animals, with various theories, such as not leaving traces of birth and avoiding possible predators that look for the young.” Regarding its possible medicinal effects, the specialist acknowledges that it can provide an analgesic effect after childbirth due to its high content of vitamin K, which is a hemostatic agent and its energy and vitamin content, while for the treatment of depression, in On the other hand, it considers that its effects have not been proven and therefore does not recommend it. “If it is ingested, the substances with an anabolic effect that it contains are destroyed and it is no more than an intake of protein and iron”, assures the president of the FEMEDE.
In short, the collective imagination attributes to the placenta an unusual medicinal potential that does not find support in the scientific community, so it does not seem that the union between mother and child is the panacea.
