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 Whether
discussions today are about estrogen replacement therapy, increasing
male potency, or improving other hormonal functions, the solutions
mentioned are generally drugs currently on the market. Lately,
however, we've been hearing marvelous reports about a hearty plant
root cultivated high in the Andes of Peru. Known as “Maca”, this
ancient nutritional source and efficacious endocrine system remedy
is being dispensed by health professionals world wide as a safe and
natural substitute for drugs. Maca, in fact, has been used by
Peruvian consumers for many centuries, from before the time of the
Incas.
Promoting the introduction of Imperial
Gold Maca™ into the United States market, Shelly Bock., is
co-founder and President of A Healthy Alternative, LLC ,a New York
based company which manufactures and imports the pure Maca Root
under the brand name Imperial
Gold Maca™.
from it's growing fields in Peru.
“Once in a decade an herb used by native
peoples for thousands of years comes to our attention and it seems
so important to health that we wonder how we ever got along without
it before,” says Dr. Viana Muller. “Maca is that kind of herb.”
“Now
women have an alternative to hormone replacement therapy [HRT],” Dr.
Muller continued. “Maca works in an entirely different and more
satisfactory way for most women than the phytoestrogenic herbs like
black Cohosh and licorice root. These herbs have become popular with
menopausal women who refuse to take the drugs of HRT.”
"And
men, too, find in Maca an herb that will counteract the difficulties
they may experience in maintaining good sexual relationships as they
age, due to a general slowing down in the output of the endocrine
glands," added the Dr..
Maca's
cultivation goes back perhaps five millennia. It was an integral
part of the diet and commerce of the high Andes regions. When they
controlled that certain South American area, the Incas found maca so
potent that they restricted its use to their Royalty's court. Upon
overrunning the Inca people, conquering Spaniards became aware of
this plant's value and collected tribute in maca roots for export to
Spain. Maca was used as an energy enhancer and for nutrition by the
Spanish Royalty as well. But eventually knowledge of maca's special
qualities died out, being preserved only in a few remote Peruvian
communities.1
In the 1960s and later in the 1980s,
German and North American scientists researching botanicals in Peru,
rekindled interest in maca through nutritional analyses of what was
designated as "the lost crops of the Andes." The publication of a
book by that name introduced maca to the world.2
At an international conference in 1991, the Food and Agricultural
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations recommended that Peruvians
should return to eating traditional, native Andean foods. Maca was
included in the FAO list as a means of combating nutritional
problems being caused by people switching to processed foods and
high-sugar drinks. The reintroduction of Maca has established
healthy eating once again in the Peruvian diet.
Proteins, as
polypeptides, make up 11% of the dry maca root and 14% of whole maca
paste. Calcium makes up 10% of maca's mineral count. Magnesium and
potassium are also present in significant amounts. Other maca
minerals include iron, silica, and traces of iodine, manganese,
zinc, copper, and sodium. Starch, a hexosane polysaccharide in maca,
contains the triple minerals, calcium, phosphorus, and iron.
Vitamins found in maca comprise thiamin, riboflavin and ascorbic
acid. Carbohydrates, coming from maca's cellulose and lignin, are
polyholosides.
Amino acid proteins in maca include aspartic
acid, glutamic acid, serine, histidine, glycine, threonine, cystine,
alanine, arginine, tyrosine, phenylalanine, valine, methionine,
isoleucine, lysine, tryptophan, proline, hoproline, and
sarcosine.These investigations on the food content of maca were
carried out in 1979 at the Institute of Nutrition in Lima.
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The scientist
responsible for most of the current knowledge of the maca plant is
Gloria Chacon de Popivici, PhD, a Peruvian biologist trained at the
University of San Marcos, in Lima, Peru. Dr. Chacon wrote her
dissertation in the early l960’s on the maca root, and did
groundbreaking work on the plant by discovering a new species. By
analyzing its chemical actives, she pinpointed their hormonal
effects.
Dr. Chacon also authored a book describing the
root's nourishing micronutrients: La importance de Lepidium
peruvianum Chacon (Maca) en la Alimentacion y Salud del ser Humano y
Animal 2,000 Ados Antes y Despues de Cristo y en el Siglo XXI.
Published in Lima, in 1997, the book is a definitive study on maca
and discusses its use from 8000 BC to the present and into the 21st
century.3
Having become interested in the almost
extinct maca root in 1960 as an undergraduate biology student at the
University of Lima, Dr. Chacon went on to do extensive research.
During a botanical field trip to the Central Highlands of her native
Peru, she encountered an amazing and little-known plant whose root,
she learned from the local population, had powerful energizing and
fertility effects.
A search of botanical literature revealed
that a plant closely resembling maca had been identified in 1843 by
the German botanist, Walpers. He called it Lepidium meyenii Walpers,
but the plant he described was a perennial without the same
medicinal effects as Peruvian maca. It grows in parts of Bolivia and
Chile. The young student was excited to realize that she had located
and identified a new species, which she called Lepidium peruvianum
Chacon. It is a classification accepted by major herbariums in the
United States and Europe as a true new species. Curiously, in Peru
it is still called by the erroneous name, Lepidium meyenii Walpers.4
This biologist/author has done the most
important scientific work to date on the maca plant. In particular,
Dr. Chacon isolated four alkaloids from the maca root and carried
out animal studies with male and female rats given either powdered
maca root or alkaloids isolated from the roots. In comparison with
the animal control groups, those receiving either root powder or
alkaloids showed multiple egg follicle maturation in females and, in
males, significantly higher sperm production and motility rates than
control groups.
Dr. Chacon established that it was the
alkaloids in the maca root, not its plant hormones, that produced
fertility effects on the ovaries and testes of the rats. “These
effects are measurable within 72 hours of dosing the animals,” she
offered in a recent telephone interview from Lima, Peru. Through the
experiments, she deduced that the alkaloids were acting on the
hypothalamus-pituitary axis, which explains why both male and female
rats were affected in a gender-appropriate manner. This also
explains why the effects in humans are not limited to ovaries and
testes, but also act on the adrenals, giving a feeling of greater
energy and vitality, and on the pancreas and thyroid as well.5
“Implications of Dr. Chacon's discovery of the pituitary
stimulating effects of maca are enormous,” Dr. Muller said when I
spoke to her recently. “What it appears to mean is that hormone
replacement therapy, even the natural varieties, Will no longer be
the gold standard for optimizing health from a holistic point of
view.”
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Now
practicing complementary medicine with an emphasis on the use of
medicinal herbs, one of the earliest modern pioneers in the
therapeutic use of this ancient herb for an urban population is Hugo
Malaspina, MD, a respected cardiologist in Lima. Dr. Malaspina has
been using the maca root in his practice for a decade and makes the
following observation: “There are different medicinal plants that
work on the ovaries by stimulating them. With maca, though, we
should say that it ‘regulates’ the ovarian function.”
Dr.
Malaspina, who uses maca therapy for both his male and female
patients, recalls that he first heard about this extraordinary herb
through a group of elderly gentlemen who, while well along in years
were still lively and interested in enjoying sexual activities. “One
of this group (they were all over 70) started taking maca and found
he was able to perform satisfactorily in a sexual relationship with
a lady friend. Soon everyone in the group began drinking the powered
maca as a beverage and enjoying the boost that the root was giving
their hormonal functions. I have several of these men as patients,
and their improvement prompted me to find out more about maca and
begin recommending it to my other patients,” Dr. Malaspina stated.
What makes maca so effective, according to Dr. Malaspina, is
that rather than introducing hormones from outside the body, maca
encourages the ovaries and other glands to produce the needed
hormones. The cardiologist-turned-holistic physician said, “Maca
regulates the organs of internal secretion, such as the pituitary,
the adrenal glands, the pancreas, etc. I have had perhaps 200 female
patients whose perimenopausal and postmenopausal symptoms are
alleviated by taking maca.”
Another
Peruvian pioneer in the therapeutic application of maca integrated
into a modern medical practice is Jorge Aguila Calderon, MD. An
internist, Dr. Aguila Calderon is former Chief of the Department of
Biological Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Human Medicine at the
National University of Federico Villarreal in Lima. Like Dr.
Malaspina, he prescribes maca for a wide variety of conditions,
including osteoporosis and the healing of bone fractures in the very
elderly. “Maca has a lot of easily absorbable calcium in it, plus
magnesium, and a fair amount of silica which we are finding very
useful in treating the decalcification of bones in children and
adults.”
Along with prescribing an excellent diet and certain
lifestyle changes, Dr. Aguila Calderon has helped patients overcome
male impotence, male sterility, and female sterility by employing
maca therapy. Additional problems he treats with maca are rickets,
various forms of anemia, menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and
night sweats, climacteric and erectile difficulties in men,
premature aging, and general states of weakness such as
chronic fatigue.
Physicians in
the United States believe this herb has the potential of a balanced
answer to the effects of aging on the endocrine system. Many who
have tried phytoestrogens and/or precursor hormones such as DHEA or
pregnenolone, or even natural hormone replacement therapy and have
been dissatisfied, are getting excellent results from their use of
maca root. Gabriel Cousens, MD, practicing internal medicine in
Patagonia, Arizona, says, “Whenever possible, I prefer to use maca
therapy rather than hormone replacement therapy because HRT actually
ages the body by diminishing the hormone producing capability of the
glands. Maca has proven to be very effective with menopausal
patients in eliminating hot flashes and depression and in increasing
energy levels. To find the right dosage level, sometimes I have
started the patient on maca treatment with a half a teaspoon of
powder or three capsules a day. In some cases I have raised the
dosage to a teaspoon or six capsules a day for full effectiveness.”
Maca root, in
keeping with its mode of acting through the hypothalamus and
pituitary, has a balancing and nourishing effect on the adrenal
glands. Henry Campanile, MD, a 50-year old specialist in internal
and family/complementary medicine practicing in St. Petersburg,
Florida, relates: “I happen to have been born with one adrenal gland
just like my father. I started taking cortisone in my late twenties
to relieve the fatigue which I was already feeling. Knowing the
dangers of long term cortisone use, I looked around for an
alternative, and this circumstance is what got me interested in
complementary medicine. I started using pregnenelone about 10 years
ago and it has been fairly satisfactory. But one of my patients told
me about Maca™, and I started taking it about a month ago. It is
phenomenal! I haven't felt this good since I was 20 years old. I
have so much energy and look so well, my patients have remarked on
it and told me how rested I seem. I've got so much energy now I've
started an exercise program."
After trying it out on himself,
Dr. Campanile began using Maca with his patients. “My first patient
to take the maca capsules was experiencing hot flashes and other
menopausal symptoms. She started feeling much better after using
this herb for only four days. I'm also employing it with patients
who have low adrenal function.”
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Garry F. Gordon,
MD, former president of the American College for Advancement in
Medicine, now Founder and President of the International College of
advanced Longevity Medicine, located in Chicago, Illinois, bases his
appreciation of maca on his own experience with it. Speaking with me
from Payson, Arizona, Dr. Gordon said, “We all hear rumors about
various products like Maca. But using this Peruvian root myself, I
personally experienced a significant improvement in erectile tissue
response. I call it ‘nature’s answer to Viagra”
“What I see
in Maca is a means of normalizing our steroid hormones like
testosterone, progesterone, and estrogen. Therefore it has facility
to forestall the hormonal changes of aging,” Dr. Gordon believes.
“It acts on men to restore them to a healthy functional status in
which they experience a more active libido. Lots of men and women
who previously believed their sexual problems were psychological are
now clearly going to look for something physiological to improve
quality of life in the area of sexuality,” says Dr. Gordon. “Of
course, as someone interested in longevity, I'm aware that mortality
comes on much sooner for those individuals whose sexual activity is
diminished or nonexistent. In other words, I believe that people who
engage in sex twice a week or more live longer. I've found sexual
activity to be a reliable marker for overall aging.”
Burton
Goldberg, President of Future Medicine Publishing in Tiburon,
California, whose latest book is An Alternative Medicine Definitive
Guide to Cancer, is another enthusiast of Maca. He says that when he
tried Maca he was very pleased with the results and began taking it
regularly. “I'm a 72 year old man and this Maca has taken 25 years
off my aging sex life,” declares Burton Goldberg. “That's pretty
important to me!”
Dr. Garry Gordon is concerned about
reproductive problems in today's world. “Society faces a huge
problem of dropping sperm counts and sex hormone difficulties. But
Maca furnishes a nontoxic solution with no downside effects. It's a
therapy that appears to offer men and women the chance for hormonal
rejuvenation,” concludes Dr. Gordon. “We currently live in an era in
which almost everyone will be doing something to deal with the
hormonal consequences of aging. And Maca™ is now readily available
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References:
1. Vavilov, N. 1. The Origin, Variation, Immunity and
Breeding of Cultivated Plants. (Waltham, Massachusetts:
Smithsonian Institute, 1957) p. 364.
2. King, S.R. “Four
endemic Andean tuber crops: Promising food resources for
agricultural diversification.” Mountain Research and
Development. 7(l):432, 1987.
3 . Chacon de Popvici, G.
La importancia de Lepidium peruvianum Chacon (Maca) en
la Alimentacion y Salud del ser Humano y Animal 2,000 Anos Antes
y Despues de Cristo y en el Siglo XXI. Peru, 1997.
4. Chacon,
R.C., “Estudio fitoquimico de Lepidium meyenii Walp.” Thesis
Universidad Nacional. Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, 1961, p,
43.
5. Dini, A., et al, “Chemical Composition of Lepidium
mayenii.” Food Chemistry. 49:347-349, 1994.
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