Maca
(Lepidium Peruvianum Chacon)
Introduction
Maca is a root plant
and a member of the cruciferous family, native to Peru. It is both a food
and a medicine and is eaten by native peoples of the highlands of Peru
of all ages - from three year olds to the elderly. It looks something like
a small turnip, either cream-colored or purple when it is harvested. Our
Royal Maca™ is the only maca sold which is guaranteed to have been grown
without pestcides or chemical fertilizers. It is rich in calcium, magnesium,
phosphorous and iron, and contains trace minerals, including zinc, iodine,
copper, selenium, bismuth, manganese and silica, as well as B vitamins.
It also contains four alkaloids proven in scientific investigation to nourish
the endocrine glands, including the reproductive system of men and women.
Maca has adaptogen
qualities, that is, its effects are appropriate to the age and sex of the
person using it. It has a long list of uses because of its broad range
of nutritional and medicinal properties discovered by both Indians of the
Peruvian highlands in ancient times and by contemporary populations and
naturopathic physicians. Some examples: revitalizes men and women of middle
and older age both mentally and physically, helps older men maintain sexual
functioning; assists in human conception; helps maintain menopausal hormonal
balance, reduces stress and boosts energy levels,, and is being used as
an adjuvant therapy for chronic fatigue.
Where
does Maca grow?
It grows at an altitude
of between 13,000 and 14,500 feet above sea level in the high Andean plateaus
of Peru, a cold, oxygen-poor environment with high winds and harsh sunlight.
No other food plant exists in the world which will grow at so high an altitude.
But the soil of these high plateaus are extremely rich in minerals, which
accounts for the high level of trace minerals found in maca. Some of the
Quechua-speaking Peruvian Indians who grow maca, still grow it in the traditional
way, using no pesticides and a long fallow period before replanting,with
only the natural fertilizer provided by their animals.
Indians of all
ages who live in the high Andes eat maca, along with quinoa and amaranth
and other crops of exceptional nutritional value. The earliest archeological
evidence for the growing of maca for human consumption dates back to approximately
8,000 B.C. During the establishment of the Inca Empire, the Inca king prohibited
the native peoples he conquered from trading maca, demanding that the entire
maca crop be given in tribute to the royal family. Several different Spanish
Chronicles mention maca. In 1653 Bernabe Cobo wrote: "Half of the Indians
[of Peru] have no other bread," [other than maca]. Maca was also endowed
with certain mystical properties and has been found in tombs. Today the
natives of the high Andes perform ceremonies to Pachamama - Mother Earth,
in which maca is offered to the mountain in gratitude for blessings received.
Native healers prescribe maca for improving pulmonary function, curing
rheumatism, arthritis, respiratory and fertility problems, and it is also
used to ease menopausal and postmenopausal symptoms and to increase energy,
thyroid and pancreatic balance and sexual vitality in both women and men.
In the last decade, the use of maca has spread to urban areas in Peru and
to parts of Europe, as its qualities become known.
The fertility powers
of maca are prized by young couples in the Peruvian highlands. Young women
and men who fail to conceive a child eat maca on a regular basis until
conception occurs. At the very high altitudes at which they live, conception
is often difficult. In fact, after the Spanish Conquest, when Spaniards
went to Cusco to live, it was several years before the first Spanish baby
was born. The tonic qualities of maca have helped the native population
to thrive in the oxygen- poor environment of the high plateau in which
they live. It is energizing both mentally and physically, on account both
of its mineral content, and the alkeloids it contains.
Has
it been scientifically studied?
Its valuable qualities
have only been discovered by scientists in the last thirty years. Dr. Gloria
Chacon isolated the four alkaloids which maca contains in 1990 and injected
them into rats. In this way, she learned that it was the alkaloids which
were responsible for the hormonal changes in the reproductive systems of
both male and female rats. Dr. Chacon's research revealed that the alkaloids
in maca act on the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland which together
help regulate the endocrine glands, including the adrenals, the thyroid,
the ovaries, and the testes by releasing higher levels of precursor hormones.
Although human
populations have eaten maca for more than 10,000 years, according to archeologists
who have found evidence for the domestication of maca since about 8,000
B.C., the knowledge of the positive effects of eating maca gradually died
out with the Spanish Conquest, except among those people living at the
very highest altitude of Peru, where maca grows. These millenia of safe
and effective human use (native women eating maca have a very low rate
of breast cancer) has recently been supplemented by scientific studies.
Female rats fed
maca or the alkaloids isolated from maca both showed significant rate of
maturation of egg follicles over the rats in the control group. Male rats
fed maca or maca alkaloids showed significant increase in sperm count and
sperm motility over rats in the control group.
German scientists
in the 1980s, impressed by the nutritional properties recommended its use
by Indians who had moved to urban centers and whose children were suffering
from malnutrition. School teachers in government schools in the highlands
now recommend to the parents that they feed their children maca, kiwicha
[amaranth], quinoa, and other native crops and stay away from white bread
and other "civilized food." The nutritional qualities of maca have also
been described in the book The Lost Crops of the Andes, along with
other native crops. In the last five years a renaisssance in the use of
maca has taken place in much of Peru, and now Europeans and North Americans
are beginning to learn about the health benefits of maca. |
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In
the Traditional Chinese Medicine system, maca is considered a "warm" food
because its effect on the body is anabolic- strengthening, nourishing,
and tonic. Several alternative health practitioners in the U.S., including
medical doctors, have been using maca successfully with their chronic fatigue
patients, in conjunction with other nutrients, such as colloidal silver,
and as part of an anti-aging program.
Medical doctors
who are naturopaths practicing in Lima, Peru, have been accumulating a
body of clinical information on the effectiveness of maca for a variety
of physical conditions which affect contemporary urban populations, including
chronic fatigue (CFS), stress, depression, candida, and immune deficiency.
These doctors also prescribe maca for the tonification of the reproductive
system in climacteric men and menopausal women, and the revitalization
(increase in energy levels and muscle strength, improved thyroid and pancreatic
functioning) of the elderly population and those with some kinds of chronic
illnesses, including arthritis.
In two visits to
Peru, in September, 1995 and May and June of 1996, I interviewed two medical
doctors, one a cardiologist and the other a pediatrician who had integrated
the use of herbs, including maca, into their medical practice and who had
subordinated their specialities in the development of a naturopathic practice.
One of these doctors, had prescribed the use of maca to about 200 menopausal
and postmenopausal women with remarkably good results. Some of the cases
which he described include the following:
A 48 year old woman
from Lima, Peru who had suffered severe hot flashes and depression and
whose doctor had prescribed a pharmaceutical estrogen replacement therapy.
She had used this supplemental estrogen for a few months but was worried
about its long term use. She stopped using it and went to Dr. M. for a
"natural alternative". He prescribed maca and did follow-up blood work,
confirming that she was maintaining a desirable post-menopausal level of
blood serum estrogen. Her hot flashes disappeared and she stopped
being depressed.
A 44 year old woman
from Lima, Peru who had had a complete hysterectomy (including removal
of the ovaries). She was suffering from depression, fatigue, and hot flashes
and was found to have a blood serum level of estrogen of 15. After two
months of taking maca, her blood serum estrogen level was retested and
found to be at a level of 75, a level which Dr. M. said is quite acceptable
to prevent osteoporosis and maintain a feeling of well being. And, in fact
her symptoms disappeared. It is evident that the effect of maca on her
body was to stimulate her adrenal glands to produce more estrogen.
An 82 year old
woman from Lima, Peru had a bone scan and was found to have the beginning
stages of osteoporosis. She was prescribed maca by Dr. M. and, coincidentally,
three months later suffered a fall down a flight of steep stairs. Her left
hip and arm were badly bruised with hematomas and she sustained a cut on
her face. Dr. M. was called to examine her before she was moved. She appeared
not to have any broken bones, which was confirmed the following day through
x-rays. The doctor found it remarkable that the maca had been so effective
after so few months of therapy and noted that maca not only stimulates
a woman's ovaries to produce more estrogen which helps the calcium remain
in the bones, but also has highly absorbable calcium, magnesium, and silica,
all of which strengthen bones.
Some menopausal
and postmenopausal women in the United States have begun to use Royal Maca™
in the last year. Here are some of their results with the product.
A 50 year old actress
from NY: "I mainly do shows on the road, all over the U.S. and we maintain
an exhausting schedule. Although I've always been a very strong and energetic
person, the last year or two I've experienced greater fatigue than I've
ever known. I had a complete physical and discovered that my estrogen level
(I'm post menopausal) was very low (about 20 blood serum estradiol level).
My doctor wanted to put me on HRT, but I wanted to try to find another
alternative. I started taking one teaspoon of maca a day (after taking
one tablespoon for two days) and I feel like my old self again! I called
my best friend in Colorado and told her to order Royal Maca™. After two
months, I cut down to 1/2 teaspoon a day."
A 56 year old wall
upholsterer: "I've been taking one teaspoon of Royal Maca™ every day for
the last three months and I'm no longer fatigued at the end of a day of
intense physical labor, gluing cloth to walls from a ladder. Instead of
sinking into a couch with exhaustion and falling asleep in front of the
TV, I now have enough energy to read, to cook, or to go out at night and
enjoy myself. Also I began to get lubrication in my vagina after using
maca for two or three weeks--something I haven't had for seven or eight
years since my menopause started. And the burning sensation in my vagina
which I've had for the last 20 years due to a chronic yeast infection totally
went away after using maca for about two months."
A 55 year old psychologist:
"I was experiencing painful intercourse caused by thinning and drying of
the vaginal wall. My gynecologist told me that these were normal aging
changes and that they were likely to get worse with time. I took 2 teaspoons
a day of Royal Maca™ for two weeks, then took one teaspoon a day for about
a month, then went down to 1/4 teaspoon a day. After three weeks of using
the herb, all the pain in the vagina was gone. In addition I feel much
energetic and I have more libido."
Royal Maca 180
caps
Price $34.95
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Royal Maca w/DIM 90 caps
Sale Price $ 34.95
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