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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 Botanicals, a New York
City company.
“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.
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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
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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.”
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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-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.”
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.
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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.
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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 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."
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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