Is Eating Her Own Placenta a Good Idea?

Originally Posted: Should your wife eat her placenta? Or give birth underwater?
By: Vincent C. Sales
Philippine Daily Inquirer
April 25, 2012

Time to panic. Our second baby is due in one month, and we haven’t even settled on a name yet. Having been through this all before, I thought it would be easier the second time around, but that’s just not the case.

My wife and I know better now. We know more. We’re faced with a ton of options that we weren’t aware of before. Some of these options are more of the usual, some are cutting edge science and some are just plain bizarre.

We’re talking “Survivor”’s bug-eating levels of bizarre. We’re talking everything from giving birth underwater, to freezing your baby’s cord blood for future gene therapy, to cooking your placenta and chowing down on it later. Yes, these are the options we’re faced with in modern childbirth. Just relax and enjoy the show. Oh, and feel free to panic at any time.

Water birth?

Speaking of panicking, that was what I was doing when our first baby was being delivered. I was a deer caught in the headlights, mesmerized until the nurses screamed at me to start taking photos. My wife, meanwhile, turned out to be some kind of Olympic champion of childbirth. She was fully dilated in minutes before the doctor even arrived at the operating room, pushed my baby boy out in five epic pushes, and later had the audacity to complain that she didn’t need the epidural. I brag about her every chance I get.

It’s no wonder then that this time around, our OB recommends that we do a water birth, or as I see it, she wants to raise the difficulty for my Olympic champion.

The benefits are clear: It’s cheaper. There are other benefits such as less trauma for the baby, pain relief for the mother that immersion in water gives, and the lowered need for an episiotomy (look it up!), but I didn’t hear anything else after the doctor said that it’s cheaper.

So we went on the tour of the St. Luke’s Global City water birth facilities, where the nurses proudly showed us the humongous bathtub and gorgeous suite, and whispered to us that Maricel Laxa had given birth there. And hey, if it’s good enough for Maricel Laxa…

…It may not be good enough for the wife, who voiced discomfort about giving birth naked in a giant bathtub, far from pain-killing drugs and baby-monitoring machines. Critics of water birth also point out the increased risk of infection as you get water all the way up your wazoo, though the numbers show no significant difference.

Save the cord blood? Or save money?

Another difficult decision that we’ll have to make soon is whether to save the baby’s cord blood or save that money for the kid’s future instead.

Cord blood contains stem cells, and if you paid attention during science class, then you know that stem cells can differentiate into any cell that the human body requires. Say, if you develop leukemia, then your body needs new bone marrow. The stem cells from cord blood can be made to create this new bone marrow. Have a burn? Squirt some stem cells on it to make new skin. It’s literally the future of medicine.

Science class over. Here’s the wager: Saving your baby’s cord blood can provide a cure/treatment for 80 diseases, such as some forms of leukemia, lymphoma and cerebral palsy. This branch of medical science also promises even more cures for things like heart disease and diabetes in the not-too-distant future. On the other hand, the chances of your child getting one of the diseases that cord blood can treat today are incredibly slim to non-existent. On the other other hand, having a cure for one those diseases would be priceless.

The price of this wager? A wallet-gutting P40,000 plus VAT upon signing up, and another P8,000 plus VAT for every year thereafter until your child is 18, at which point you can choose to transfer costs to him or her. Hmmm…

Your placenta: Throw away, bury, or EAT?

After the successful birth of our first son, a nurse popped in to ask us what we wanted to do with the placenta. She had the thing in a see-through plastic bag, and it looked like two very bloody kilos of lean beef, or a liver, or something in between. The last response in my head was, “I’d like to cook it and feed it to my wife.”

Move aside, “Bizarre Food.” More and more people are saying that eating your placenta after childbirth is a good idea. Or could it just be the latest fad?

The practice of eating your placenta landed on our radar as my wife was researching ways to avoid post-partum depression. The numbers vary, but it’s estimated that 80 percent of women experience some form of post-partum depression, and my wife was one of them.

It’s believed that eating your placenta can reduce post-partum depression and do a whole bunch of other good stuff, like help mothers’ uterus return to normal size and even stimulate milk production.

If you’re interested in chowing down on your afterbirth after birth, you should know that as of now, there are no medical institutions that support this practice in the Philippines. Depending on the hospital, however, it is mostly not difficult to come home with your placenta since the practice of burying your placenta in your backyard with a tree is commonplace.

Preparing the placenta for ingestion remains a strictly DIY process. You steam it, dry it, grind it and then place it in capsules that you ingest like medicine. (So there go my dreams of seeing my wife wolf down a chunk of raw meat like Daenerys in “Game of Thrones.”)

Jenny Ong, from the blog Chronicles of a Nursing Mom, had her placenta encapsulated in the States. “With my first born, I cried every day from day three until about she was one month,” she said. “With E (my second child), I only cried once the entire time.

“I managed to take care of both kids without losing my sanity,” Jenny went on to say, something that we’re hoping for with our second baby. “I also would like to think that it affected my milk supply.”

The older I get, the more I realize that unlike the Rolling Stones song, time is not on my side. In less than a month, my wife and I will have to decide on a number of things that may affect the rest of our lives in very significant ways. I don’t know what we’ll decide on right now. I only know that the choices we make will be with our family’s best interests in mind. That’s all the world asks of us. And in the end, whatever happens, everything will be fine. No need to panic.

You Are What You Post On Facebook

Originally Posted:
ByTarra Quismundo
Philippine Daily Inquirer
July 21, 2012

What you do on Facebook could give you away.

A new study led by a Filipino journalism doctoral student found how Facebook habits could measure personality types and predict inclinations—a positive development for targeted advertising and political campaigns.

Released recently by the Missouri School of Journalism, the study conducted by PhD students Edson Tandoc Jr., former Inquirer reporter and scholar, and Heather Shoenberger found patterns on how certain personality types used social media.

“Observing one’s Facebook habits can offer clues to that user’s personality. For example, Facebook uses targeted advertising. This becomes effective if the right ad is targeted at the right person,” Tandoc said via e-mail.

Highest Penetration Rate

Tandoc said the study should be of particular relevance to the Philippines, known as the “social networking capital of the world.” Citing an online study last year, he noted that 94 percent of Filipino Internet users have Facebook accounts—the highest penetration rate in the world for the popular social media network site.

The study, presented at the International Communication Association Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in May, used a personality scale called the Mini-Motivation Activation Measure to see links between personalities and Facebook habits.

“Using this scale, we were able to find a trend in the patterns of how people with certain personality types use social media. I believe this could really help advertisers and certain types of media groups target potential customers with particular ads on social media sites,” Shoenberger said in a statement on the journalism school’s website.

For instance, the researchers said people who were more outgoing and more adventurous tended to post more frequently, including status updates and photos and interacted more with friends online.

“If by frequency of one’s posts a user can be classified as adventurous, then ads about adventure-related products or services such as bungee jumping or kayaking, as well as ads designed for adventurous people, will be appealing to that user,” Tandoc said.

‘Reserved’ Users

More “reserved” users scan through their News Feed, which contains posts of their friends, but uses Facebook more cautiously.

The researchers found that these users actually log on more to Facebook, a pattern that can be “counterintuitive but this is actually consistent with the idea that this personality type uses Facebook as a safer way to maintain social relationships than face-to-face interaction,” Tandoc noted.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Night Crawlers in California

These strange beings that appear at night in San Jose, Yosemite in California. They’ve been caught at least two times by security cameras.

The images are fantastic! It’s even more interesting that there’s a legend behind these beings. A legend that’s over 100 years old, what can we say. Beings that seem to have no arms, no body, they have a head and legs.

What a case! Amazing images! No one has been able to discredit them. It’s a current and real case.

British X-Files: Half Man, Half Dog

There are a few sightings around the UK of this urban monster now. It seems to resemble a half man, half dog creature.

Does anyone know what they are?

Giant Foot Print 200 Million Yrs Old - South Africa

Michael Tellinger shows off what could be one of the best pieces of evidence that there were giants on Earth a long, long time ago. Geologists have marvelled at this giant foot print in rough granite, about 4 feet long. Some still say that it is a natural erosion pattern.

Personally I find that suggestion highy improbable for various reasons that I will not go into here. Prof. Pieter Wagener from UPE, suggests that “there is a higher probability of little green men arriving from space and licking it out with their tongues, than being created by natural erosion”.

It is located in South Africa, near the town of Mpaluzi, close to the Swaziland border. It is estimated to be between 200 million and 3 Billion years old because of our current understanding of the formation of granites in Earth’s history. This dating immediately causes great debate and argument – so I urge you to keep your mind open and focused on the evidence.

This amazing footprint in granite was discovered in 1912 by a hunter called Stoffel Coetzee, while hunting in the remote area. At the time this was a deeply remote part of South Africa known as the Eastern Transvaal, teeming with wild life, including antelope and lions. It remains in the same condition as it was when first discovered and the possibility that this was a carved hoax is extremely low because of its remote location. Even today, it is difficult to find.

The real mystery is how this amazing phenomenon occured – I have no idea – but here it is and we cannot wish it away.

YES – It is granite – it is a well recognised geological part of South Africa and recorded on all geological maps – that is why this footprint is such an incredible mystery. It can be desribed as a “phenocrystic” granite, OR coarse porphyritic granite, that underwent several different stages of cooling. The result being an interesting mixture of large and small granules. This is why granite companies are keen to mine this area for granite because it will look really “pretty” when polished. In the official Geology Of South Africa, this outcrop is called Mpuluzi Batholith (Granite) and the official dating of this rock produced dates of around 3,1 billion years.

A real mystery that needs close scientific examination.

Pyramid of Glass Found in Bermuda Triangle

These strange underwater pyramid structures at a depth of two thousand meters were identified with the help of a sonar according to oceanographer Dr. Verlag Meyer. Studies of other structures like Yonaguni in modern day Japan have allowed scientists to determine that the two giant pyramids, apparently made of something like a thick glass, are really impressive – each of them is larger than the pyramid of Cheops in Egypt.

Recently American and French scientists as well as other countries that are conducting surveys in areas of the seabed of the Bermuda Triangle, claim to have found a pyramid standing upright on the seabed that has never been discovered. The length of the base of this pyramid reached 300 meters, 200 meters height, and distance from base to the tip of the pyramid is about 100 meters above the sea floor. Preliminary results show this structure to be made of glass or a glass-like (crystal?) material, as it is entirely smooth and partially translucent.

When talking about size, this newly re-discovered pyramid is larger in scale than the pyramids of ancient Egypt. On top of the pyramid there are two very large holes, sea water at high speed move through the second hole, and therefore the raging waves roll by forming a giant vortex that makes the waters around this cause a massive surge waves and mist on the sea surface. This new discovery makes scientists wonder if this is having an affect on passing boats and planes and could be the reason for all the mystery surrounding the area.

The Strange Sounds Phenomenon

Strange sounds have been heard all over the planet emanating from the sky and/or the ground. There are different types of sounds being heard, and there is much dispute over the source and validity of the sounds.

This is a chronological compilation of some of the most recent.

5 Things Women Do That Frighten Men Off

Men are like wild horses: they scare easy. There are lots of things women do that can set blokes off at a gallop, but luckily the man-whisperer is here to help. Match.com’s relationship expert Kate Taylor reveals the top five frights you might be giving men, and how to avoid them

1. Insta-Coupling
Women often say that men are scared of commitment. Newsflash: they’re not. What they’re scared of is commitment too soon, and “too soon” simply means “before he’s thought of it himself”. You can’t be the one leading the way when it comes to anything like spending more time together, becoming exclusive, moving in or getting married. All you can do is set your own personal time-limit and then quietly leave when it’s time to get out.

This starts right from the beginning. When you meet a new man, never make the mistake of letting him feel you have a boyfriend-shaped vacancy in your life that he can just hop straight into. Don’t start calling to say, “Hello” and “Good night” every day, or immediately start inviting him along to all your plans. It’s not flattering to him, he wants to feel he’s having to win you over by his sheer amazingness. Let him feel your life is full and fulfilling already – and if it’s not, slap yourself and go get busy -- and that he has to create a boyfriend vacancy by himself, by thinking of ways to please you.

2. Insecurity
The first three months of a relationship should be easy and fun, happy and light-hearted. It’s not the time to tell him your thighs are completely different sizes, you’ve always hated your hands and that you can’t get through a day at work without crying. We’re all insecure but your boyfriend is not the place to seek comfort and reassurance in the early stages. To understand this, you have to realise that men and women bond in different ways. Men only tell problems to one another when they’re looking for solutions – we do it as a way to break the ice. If you confess everything you secretly dislike about yourself to a new man, he’ll assume you’re wanting him to “fix” it all, and feel overwhelmed. He’ll start thinking, “Wow – this girl seems to have a lot of stuff going on at the moment. I can’t cope with all this, I have my stuff too.” Instead, act as if you truly like yourself.

3. Be too nice
“Whatever you want!” “I don’t mind which film we watch!” “I’ll have what you’re having!” When a woman really likes a man, she sometimes stops voicing her opinions and begins blending into his world as much as she can, to keep his approval. (This often happens after nookie.) Instead of being the sassy, independent-thinker her man originally fell in love with, the girl begins to turn away from everything she likes, and turn towards his interests instead. She swaps her TV dramas for his sports shows, wears the clothes he likes her in and forgets all her hobbies because HE has become her main hobby. Attractive? So, so not. Turning yourself into his Mini-Me will take all the fun out of the relationship. You’ll lose confidence, stop pursuing your goals and he’ll start distrusting you – if he doesn’t know when you’re unhappy, he won’t know when you’re happy. Keep your spicy edge. If he teases you about watching Come Dine With Reality Tattooed Brides every week, ignore him – and keep watching it. He wants to date an equal.

4. Try to make him jealous
Occasionally, if you feel your man is losing interest in you, you might feel tempted to make him a little bit jealous. Should you give in to this temptation? Very, very cautiously. Truth is, if a man loves you, he will automatically feel you’re pursued by other men all the time. He’ll think you’re so beautiful that you can’t get on a bus without men circling your seat like slavering wolves. So if you bring this to his attention too obviously, he will think, “What’s she really trying to tell me here?” He’ll see it as a game and it’ll irritate him. Imagine how you’d feel if he came home from work saying, “Woah – the new PA just couldn’t keep her eyes off me today!”

Instead, just look your very best and keep your life as happy and busy as possible. Occasionally be busy at weekends. Keep going out with the girls. Keep working-out at the gym. Go away on holiday without him sometimes. Take every opportunity to meet new people. Keep putting yourself in places where he’ll worry you’ll meet someone better than him, and he’ll keep on his best behaviour around you.

5. Over-reacting
Men like a spirited, strong woman, that’s for sure. But they see “strong” in a very specific way. To men, a strong woman is not the girl who shouts at him every time he looks at another woman, lets rip when he comes home late or lectures him on how he’s let her down. A real sign of strength is poise – don’t let him see that he gets to you. He’ll be far more concerned about losing you if you calmly and briefly tell him what’s wrong and say you’ll see him again when he’s fixed it (then leave him alone), than if you yell and threaten and cry but remain right by his side. If you keep reacting emotionally, he’ll see you as out-of-control and weak and he’ll retreat.

At all times, keep your eyes focussed on your goals in life aside from him. Work, work out, see your friends. Do this even when you want to be with him all the time – do it especially when you want to be with him all day. Keep your life moving. Give him space and freedom naturally by being happy in your own skin whether he’s there or not. That’s when you’ll frighten him in the best way – that one day you might disappear – and he’ll work to secure you forever.

Source: Yahoo! Lifestyle

Tips to Detect Cancer at an Early Stage

Cancer is a fatal disease caused by an unnatural growth of malignant cells in the body.

It often manifests quite innocently, so much so that the initial symptoms often go unnoticed. The actual cure lies in early detection and eventual radiation therapy. The following article will mention steps to detect the elusive initial symptoms.

1. Skin Exam

Skin Cancer manifests as moles with discolouration, irregular borders, and unexplained multicoloured patches on the skin, with cuts or sores that stay raw. These symptoms signify the onset of skin cancer. Getting in touch with your physician and opting for regular skin examinations will prevent this.

2. Colon/Rectum Exams

Colonic or rectal cancer manifests in men, mostly after 50 years of age, in the form of unnatural bumps and bloody stools. Annual stool tests will help determine the presence of ‘occult’ components in the faeces. The testing laboratories test the sample for such components and further diagnose with more extensive tests, if such results are found. Since blood in stool can be a symptom of any other physical anomaly as well, basing these findings on cancer only will be a premature assumption. An alternate step to check for symptoms is a thorough rectal exam in which a doctor inserts a digital probe or uses his own sterilised gloved fingers to check for unnatural growths and bumps. A sigmoidoscopy, done every 3 years post 50, will help determine the symptoms of the same.

3. Mouth Exam

Unexplained sores on the lip, mouth, gum or tongue can be prematurely inferred to be an initial manifestation of mouth cancer. Regular examination of the insides of your mouth will help expose these symptoms. These sores will be characterised by swelling, bleeding, painful patches, scabs and cracks. People over 50, who regularly smoke tobacco and drink alcohol, are at maximum risk here. They should get their checkups done every year.

4. Prostate Exam

Prostate cancer is an immensely fatal health hazard to men over 40. Prostate Cancer manifests in the unnatural swelling and pain, in the initial stages. Regular sonography and physical examinations will help determine the extent of the swelling. In the absolutely initial stage, a high dose of anti-inflammatory drug will successfully curb the growth in size, but it must be detected this early for the drugs to have effect.

5. Testicular Exam

Testicular cancer can rear its head among men aged 15 to 34. This type of cancer is characterised initially by an unexplained lump followed by sudden tenderness, pain, swelling and unnatural heaviness in the testicles. If one experiences any such symptoms, they should get in touch with their doctors immediately.

The correct way to treat cancer is to nip it in the bud. Early detection of the above mentioned symptoms can save a person from the life-threatening radiation and ensure longevity. By following the above-mentioned steps, you will be able to diagnose these symptoms yourself and help your doctor in detecting cancer early.

Source: Yahoo! She

Picture Credit: 1234RF

Weird Food Combinations that Work

Bacon and Chocolate

Bacon, due to its intense saltiness works in the traditional way to heighten the savoury side of the flavour palate. Placko likes to pair it with dark chocolate for cookies and cupcakes. Candied or chocolate-dipped cooked bacon works for him too. The food pairing tree on the site shows that pork loin, Gruyere cheese and Buffalo Mozzarella work too. If you really want to branch out to the trippy ends of the tree, try cranberries, peanuts or hazelnuts. Think cranberry, hazelnut muffins with bacon crumble topping.

Oysters and Fruit
Oysters with their briny flavour of the sea go well with guava or kumquat peel but Placko likes them with passion fruit. There is no easily explainable reason why these pairings work – it’s all science, palate, trust and experimentation. Once you have identified a combo that is enhanced by being together, push it a little further and see where you end up. A metaphor for life, really.

Cauliflower and White Chocolate
You could pair cauliflower puree with sea salt and truffle oil for any old Tuesday night. But, braver cooks stretch to include white chocolate. Perhaps a drizzle on top to begin, then shaved in, if you like it. Graduate to chunks later.

Salty and Sweet
These flavours are the yin and yang of your taste buds. Peanut butter and jelly, chocolate and popcorn … dehydrated black olive with dried pineapple. Don’t knock it till you try it. Perhaps minced and on top of chicken? Maybe in a trail mix? The possibilities are endless when you embrace the concept.

Coffee and Soy Sauce
The things that go with coffee would surprise you; it’s not just for croissants anymore. Try a coffee and soy sauce combo for an intense and colour inducing glaze on chicken wings. Cook wings first either baked or steamed, mix together coffee and soy then use a pastry brush to paint on before barbecuing. Try it next with ribs.

Strawberries and Herbs
Strawberries and mint make summer sense, right? What about strawberries with chopped basil? Just as yummy but with a little surprise burst of flavour. Think a balsamic glaze might set it off? What about blueberries? They go with blue cheese, I wonder what would happen if they were pureed together and frozen into a granita.

Orange and Butter
The combination only sounds strange until you think of how yummy that creamsicle was. And, suddenly, something about the creamy smoothness of melted butter drizzled over juicy, tart orange sections begins to make sense. As an accompaniment to grilled fish, perhaps? Or as a dessert with toasted pistachios and a cheese platter.

Source: Yahoo! She

Some Facts About Wet Dreams

Have you ever woken up to find a wet, sticky spot on your underwear or PJs? At first you may have worried that you wet the bed. But if you’re going through or have already gone through puberty, you probably had a wet dream.

Doctors call wet dreams “nocturnal emissions.” Nocturnal means “at night.” Emission is another way to say release.

What are wet dreams?
A wet dream is when you ejaculate while you’re asleep. Ejaculate means to release semen (the fluid that contains sperm) from your penis. Usually a wet dream happens while you’re having a dream about sex. You may or may not remember the dream.

You don’t have to masturbate to have a wet dream. You can ejaculate without touching your penis.

What causes wet dreams?
When you go through puberty, your body starts producing the male hormone testosterone. Once your body makes testosterone, it can release sperm. This means you’ll be able to fertilize an egg if you decide to have a baby in the future. It also means you can get a girl pregnant if you have sex.

During puberty, you’ll start having erections at all different times of the day — in school, while you watch TV, in the shower. You can even have an erection while you sleep.

Semen can build up inside your body. One way that semen gets released is with a wet dream.

Is there something wrong with me because I’m having frequent wet dreams?
Wet dreams are a normal part of growing up. There’s nothing you can do to control or stop wet dreams.

Even if you have a lot of wet dreams it doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. Some guys have wet dreams a few times a week. Others may only have a couple of wet dreams during their entire life.

Once you start releasing sperm by masturbating or having sex with a partner, you may have fewer wet dreams.

Does everyone have wet dreams?
You have to go through puberty and your testes need to be able to produce sperm to have a wet dream. Wet dreams during puberty are very common.

Is there something wrong with me if I don’t have wet dreams?
Not every teenage boy has wet dreams. The fact you don’t have wet dreams doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you.

Do girls have wet dreams?
Although girls can’t ejaculate, they can have an orgasm during a dream. Girls don’t have wet dreams as often as boys, though.

What should I do if I have a wet dream?
When you wake up, clean yourself. Leaving that sticky sperm on your body could lead to an infection. Wash your penis and testicles with soap and water, including the area underneath your foreskin if you aren’t circumcised.

If you feel guilty or uncomfortable about having wet dreams — or about a certain wet dream that you had — talk to someone. Sit down with a doctor, parent, counselor, or another adult you trust.

Source: Web MD

Foods for the Libido

1. Pumpkin Seeds

Do you hate pumpkins? If you do, then you will have to find a way to love the little mean seeds insides, because they are essential to unleash your inner beast in the boudoir. Insanely replete with zinc and essential oils, these seeds are your one-way ticket to a raging sex life. The nutrients contained within, aid in boosting testosterone and sperm production, blowing your libido to orgasmic heights.

2. Oysters
If you think that oysters are good for holding pearls alone, these little wonders will come back to surprise you. Oysters are nature’s own version of Viagra. Loaded with zinc, omega-3 oils and monounsaturated fats, they aid in the sexual experience. Also, nothing adds more fireworks to sex than the intimate act of eating oysters with your partner. Kinky and nutritional!

3. Goji Berries
Don’t let these sweet little nubs fool you into believing that they are apparently worth nothing. Goji berries pack enough vitamins to have you kicking in the sack for an eternity. Not only do they boost testosterone production but also aid in delaying the climax, so that the fun need not end soon. Equipped with nutrients to stabilise mood and stamina, Goji Berries are extremely important for your sex life.

4. Bananas
The banana has been long mocked for its penile shape. The fact that it delivers much more than it looks is under-appreciated by most. The abundance of Vitamin B6 aids in balancing hormones and imitating the effect of serotonin secretion. Serotonin is responsible for the euphoric satisfaction after sex. The sugar content is a careful balance of complex and simple sugars that provide you with enough energy to last all night.

5. Celery
The weak and watery stalks offer much more than their looks, when it comes to boosting up one’s libido. The essential component in celery boosts the androsterone levels in male perspiration. This aid in the production of an aphrodisiacal pheromone that is responsible for making men seem irresistible to women.

6. Dark Chocolate
When women obsess over how chocolates are the next best thing to sex, they do not mean it lightly. One bite of dark chocolate releases enough endorphins to mirror an orgasm. A regular intake helps keep libidos high, so that lovemaking never gets tiresome.

7. Chillies
What better substance to ignite heated passions than the fiery chilli? Capsaicin, the active component contributing to the heat factor in chillies, is responsible for releasing the endorphins that spark sexual desire and aid in a fiery sexual chemistry.

Source: Yahoo! She