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We thought we'd heard some wild diet tips floating around health-obsessed Hollywood. But this takes the cake. According to MomLogic.com, a woman
 named Chrissy Schilling had her first baby over the weekend. And she and her sister celebrated by cooking and serving up the placenta. They put it on pasta and into a panini sandwich and posted some photos of the meals on a Facebook page

. According to Chrissy's sister Kathy Schilling's recommendations and recipe,
 the placenta -- full of lingering blood, vitamins, hormones -- is nourishing for the baby during pregnancy, but the nutrients are also good for moms...

Recent evidence that Druids possibly committed cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice—perhaps on a massive scale—add weight to ancient Roman accounts of Druidic savagery, archaeologists say.After a first century B.C. visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about these high-ranking priests of the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period.

NEW YORK - Matthew McConaughey says the birth of his son will help bring a little joy to others in the world someday. The actor kept the placenta from the July birth of his son and plans to plant it in an orchard, he tells CNN's "House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta" in interview scheduled to air in two parts Aug. 9 and Aug 16. McConaughey says he hopes it will fertilize the land, a ritual long followed in several cultures. "It's going to be in the orchards and it's going to bear some wonderful fruit," he says......

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A research team, including UC Riverside biologists, has found experimental evidence that supports a controversial theory of genetic conflict in the reproduction of those animals that support their developing offspring through a placenta. The conflict has been likened to a “battle of the sexes” or an “arms race” at the molecular level between mothers and fathers. At stake: the fetus’s growth rate and how much that costs the nutrient-supplying mother. The new research supports the idea of a genetic “arms race” going on between a live-bearing mother and her offspring, assisted by the growth-promoting genes of the...

LAS VEGAS - A woman has won a court fight to keep the placenta after her daughter’s birth. She had planned to grind it up and ingest it as a way to fight postpartum depression, but now plans to bury it. Clark County District Court Judge Susan Johnson granted a preliminary injunction Tuesday, ordering Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in southern Nevada to return the placenta to Anne Swanson.

A Livingston hospital has launched what is believed to be the country's first formal program devoted to encouraging expectant families to bank both placental and umbilical cord stem cells. Officials at St. Barnabas Medical Center, where the most New Jersey babies are born each year, said yesterday they have established the program with LifebankUSA of Cedar Knolls, a division of Celgene, a Summit biotechnology company. "We felt the research of the Celgene scientists held such promise that it would be worth it for our patients to know about it," said Richard Miller, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists looking for easier and less-controversial alternatives to stem cells from human embryos said on Friday they found a potential source in placentas saved during childbirth. They described primitive cells found in a part of the placenta called the amnion, which they coaxed into forming a variety of cell types and which look very similar to sought-after embryonic stem cells. With 4 million children born in the United States each year, placentas could provide a ready source of the cells, the team at the University of Pittsburgh said. It is not yet certain that the cells they...

Option to stem cells found Pitt experts say placental cells offer palatable alternative Friday, August 05, 2005 By Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette     University of Pittsburgh researchers have discovered that one type of cell in the human placenta has characteristics that are strikingly similar to embryonic stem cells in their ability to regenerate a wide variety of tissues. The cells, called amniotic epithelial cells, potentially could be used to produce new liver cells to treat liver failure, or new pancreatic islet cells to cure diabetes or new neurons to treat Parkinson's disease. Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are obtained...

by Steven Ertelt LifeNews.com Editor July 12, 2004 Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Two new studies are providing further argument that embryonic stem cell research is unnecessary because adult stem cells are not only more ethical, but more effective as well. Researchers at the Tufts-New England Medical Center reported last week that that unborn children may be giving their mothers the gift of life. As reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the researchers have uncovered evidence that fetal stem cells may be migrating from the developing unborn child to diseased tissue and organs in the mother's body. Evidence...

Joined by 31 cosponsors, a Republican state senator from Duluth introduced a bill Thursday designed to foster stem cell research in Georgia and to avoid the controversy such efforts arouse. The bill by Sen. David Shafer would encourage research with stem cells from postnatal tissue – umbilical cords, the placenta and amniotic fluid. "Stem cell research efforts have been hampered by the controversy over embryonic stem cells," Shafer said. "But stem cells are not found only in embryos. Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells which can be used for research without destroying any embryos." "Stem cell research using...

Patient: L.S. age 46 Diagnostic: Fascioscapulohumeral Muscular DystrophyThe following letter is from an MD patient who received the amnion stem cell implant, and is authorized for release by Stem Cell Pharma, Inc.August 19, 2006Dear Dr._______The following is an account of my progress since my stem cell/placenta implant on June 29, 2006 in the early evening for adult onset fascioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy of 23 years.July 24, 2006- General improvements are: My good muscles are better-more firm and a little more bulk (this was noticed by my chiropractor) so I feel stronger and movements are a little easier, for example, pushing...

The search for what authorities feared was a desperate mother and newborn in grave medical danger was called off yesterday after police located the woman whose placenta was found in a Wellesley College pond. Mom and baby are both healthy, police said. “No one was ever at any time in any danger at all. After completing the investigation, we are sure of that,” said Wellesley police spokeswoman officer Marie Cleary. “The baby was never in any kind of jeopardy.” The Wellesley mom gave birth “a number of months” ago and she and her husband preserved the placenta on their own,...

Picured here is a fresh placenta just taken out a woman's womb. It could have been big meal for Cruise.(file photo)    BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhuanet)-- Tom Cruise boasted about eating fiancèe Katie Holmes's placenta when baby Cruise is born, Cruise said in an interview.     The Mission: Impossible III actor, 43, said: "I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I am gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there"     But when it was pointed out it would be a very big meal, he retorted: "OK. Maybe I won't."    Though some claim that eating afterbirth may help prevent post-partum depression, it won't help the mom...

Hollywood actor Tom Cruise is planning to eat his new baby's placenta, it emerged today.It is the latest in a series of unusual revelations by the 43-year-old Mission Impossible star about the child he is expecting with fiancee Katie Holmes. He told GQ magazine: "I'm gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I'm gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there." Cruise has also claimed he knew actress Holmes, 27, was pregnant, even before she told him. A follower of Scientology, he has defended the religion's belief that women should give birth in silence....

TOM Cruise has claimed he will eat the PLACENTA after fiancée Katie Holmes has their baby. The actor, 43 — who wants her to give birth in silence according to his Scientology cult rules — said: “I’m gonna eat the placenta, too. “I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I’m going to eat the cord and the placenta right there.” But when a GQ magazine interviewer said it would be a big meal, Cruise replied: “OK, maybe I won’t.”

PITTSBURGH, August 8, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have revealed findings that some placental cells have many of the same characteristics of embryonic stem cells. Like umbilical cords, the placenta is routinely discarded after a baby is born, and is a rich source of these cells. The cells are readily available and have been shown not to produce the tumors that are a major medical barrier to using embryo cells in direct treatments. "We think it would be easier to get these to the clinic than [embryonic stem] cells," said Stephen Strom, an associate professor of...

Beginning of the End for Embryonic Stem Cell Research? By Michael Fumento Tech Central Station, February 11, 2005Copyright 2005 Tech Central Station Supporters of expanded federal funding for embryonic stem cell research were disappointed by President Bush's State of the Union Address, which indicated no softening of restrictions. Instead, he said he’d work to “ensure that human embryos are not created for experimentation.” But those who truly believe ESC research will bring medical breakthroughs have naught to fear. For there’s a far more promising approach, likelier to produce more benefits and much sooner.We're being flooded with exciting new developments from...

Daily Reproductive Health Report National Politics & Policy | Senators Hear 'Alternatives' to Embryonic Stem Cell Research; Adult Stem Cells, Umbilical Cord Blood Touted [Jun 13, 2003]       The Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space yesterday heard "alternatives" to research using embryonic stem cells, including research using adult stem cells and umbilical cord blood, which some say could be as effective as embryonic stem cells in treating degenerative diseases, the AP/Yahoo! News reports (Abrams, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/12).        Dr. Jean Peduzzi-Nelson of the University of Alabama-Birmingham testified that there is "abundant evidence" that adult stem cells can already...