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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 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 maca into the United States market, Viana Muller,
Ph.D., is cofounder and President of New World Botanicalä,a New York
City-based company which manufactures and imports the product, Maca.
“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. 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," said Dr. Muller.
The Importance of Maca in the History of Peru
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.
The Nutritional Value of Maca
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.
The New Maca Species, Lepidium peruvianum Chacon
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
Effects of Maca on the Endocrine Glands
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.”
Hugo Malaspina, MD, Works with Maca
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-wholistic 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.”
Jorge
Aguila Calderon, MD, Prescribes 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.
American Physician Gabriel Cousens, MD, Uses Maca
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.”
Henry Campanile, MD, Offers Adrenal Balancing
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.”
Maca as an Anti-Aging Herb for Both Men and Women
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 fimctional 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."
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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