Some people go to great lengths to stay young, but this is really strange: Human Placenta treatment.
In the 2004 movie Three Extremes, Chinese actress Bai Ling raised eyebrows playing an unlicensed midwife who makes dumplings out of aborted foetuses and placentas.
She sold them to rich women who believed that consuming them would reverse the signs of ageing. Although Bai herself claims to be disgusted by the idea of eating placentas, there are rumours aplenty of other celebrities who do it in the hope of improving their health and regaining a youthful complexion.
Dr. Peter Chew, a consultant OB/GYN at Gleneagles Hospital, Singapore, didn't think that it worked, but also didn't see any harm in eating human placenta:
A placenta is an organ rich in blood vessels that develops in female mammals during pregnancy. It lines the uterine wall and partially envelopes the foetus, to which it is attached by the umbilical cord. At full-term, it is about 18cm long and 5cm thick. It is expelled during child birth, forming part of the afterbirth.
Its function is to transfer oxygen and nutrients from the mother to the foetus. It also releases carbon dioxide and waste from the foetus through the umbilical cord to be disposed of by the mother.
Dr Peter Chew, a consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Gleneagles Hospital, says that though people have been talking about "frying, drying and eating placentas" for years, his patients rarely ask to keep theirs.
He says: "Placentas are full of hormones, so theoretically, they should improve the complexion, even though there's no medical evidence to support this."
As for the possibility of dangerous side effects from consuming it, he says "there's no harm, seeing it's your own body's organ". But to be on the safe side, he recommends cooking the placenta before consumption.
Read more about this strange beauty treatment: Link
If you're squeamish about eating human placenta, there's an alternative: Placenta Essence Whiting [sic] and Revitalizing facial mask powder, made from sheep placenta.
http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11020 - Thanks Martin Perra!
And to thegeekyruler: many animals eat their own placenta for a few reasons: one is to get rid of any scent of blood as soon as possible to prevent predators from finding them or the babies (felines of all sizes do this and other animals) and also, a female who has just given birth is not able to hunt/forage for food and so the placenta serves as an immediate form of nutrition to sustain both the mother and the babies, because if the mother is not getting some sort of nutrition, neither are the babies.
I have heard, though I would not do it, of human women eating their own placentas after they have given birth.