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     High in the Andes mountains, there’s a humble root vegetable that’s reputed to be a source of the legendary strength and endurance of the Inca people. This vegetable, known as maca, has been cultivated for over 2,000 years. Lately, it’s become fashionable as a globally marketed aphrodisiac. But, as you know, I believe that Nature is never that narrow-minded. While some of the libido-boosting claims are true, they’re only a sample of the health brilliance maca can help you attain.

     Above ground, maca (known variously as Lepidium meyenii or L. peruvianum) is an unobtrusive ground-hugging plant. It’s truly a buried treasure, though. The edible root, which looks like a turnip or radish, comes in a range of colors, including cream, gray, yellow, purple, yellow-and-purple, red, and black. (You’ll see in a bit why that’s important to know.) It smells faintly of butterscotch, and can have a sharp taste that packs a zing like mustard or wasabi—which is why locals prefer to boil, roast, or dry and/or grind it into flour before including it in their daily dishes. To me, these preparations make it taste and smell more like toasted oats.

     Maca grows wild in many locations in South America, and it’s also being cultivated elsewhere. But be aware: Maca’s medical miracles come only from the plants that grow at 13,000 to 15,000 feet in the steep central Peruvian Andes valleys. Here, the environmental conditions are extreme and treacherous, the soils are poor, and the air is thin. At this altitude just walking around is challenging, let alone doing any work. My last visit was a few years back now, but my days harvesting alongside the many generations of family farmers in the maca fields, and then trying all things maca at the international maca festival—from wine and chocolate to jams—will never fade. Researchers have still only scratched the surface about what maca does and how it does it, but there’s already something for everybody, men and women alike. Here’s what I’ve dug up thus far about marvelous maca.

     ■ It’s True: A Healthier Libido. Many factors can affect libido, including hormone levels, stress, and mood. Well-designed research has shown, however, that within 8 weeks of taking 1,500 mg of maca daily, men have an average 180 percent increase in their libido. Furthermore, the effect is independent of whether they have depression or anxiety, and it doesn’t cause changes in their levels of testosterone or estrogen. This should comfort you if you’re struggling
with prostate problems and would just as soon not meddle with your hormone levels, which could make your prostate even bigger. Earlier research, which I’ve written about before, shows effects just as dramatic for women.

     ■ A Healthier Prostate. While we’re talking about prostate problems, maca has been shown to reduce prostate size significantly. This is undoubtedly due in part to its rich supply of plant sterols, including beta sitosterol—a powerful treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Maca has another well-known prostate shrinker, a group of compounds called glucosinolates—
which also protect against prostate cancer while they’re at it.

     ■ Improved Sexual Performance. Peruvian folklore suggests that maca is helpful for men with erectile dysfunction (ED), and animal studies in the laboratory have supported this. The evidence suggests that maca’s contribution to sexual performance is not through the quick (and, I might add, somewhat dangerous) Viagra-like override of malfunctioning penile arteries, but by gently and gradually reversing the underlying circulatory problem. Studies show that oral supplementation with maca repairs the biochemical cascade of events that makes penile arteries misbehave. The result is real improvement over time, without the health risks associated with fastacting prescription ED drugs.

     ■ Improved Fertility. It’s no secret that human fertility has declined. This decline has been attributed to, among other things, environmental pollutants and plastics that scramble the critical hormonal balance necessary for successful reproduction. Maca can help. With a daily dose of 1,500 mg, benefits in women include increased fetal growth and reduced
miscarriage rates. Men enjoy an average 200 percent increase in semen volume as well as significantly increased sperm counts, increased sperm motility, and increased conception rates. All of these benefits occur, again, without any meddling into sex hormone levels. Instead, it appears that maca activates an anabolic (tissue-building) gene pathway known as insulin-like growth factor (IGF), which is a critical determinant of fertility and fetal development, and which is known to decline with age.

     ■ A Clearer Mind. Remember the various colors of maca I described earlier? Animal studies show that black maca improves learning, although how it does this is still foggy. It may be that the agent is maca’s rich content of phytoestrogens and flavonoids such as quercetin, one of the most powerful food-sourced antioxidants and anti-inflammatories known, with proven protective effects on cognitive performance— particularly learning and memory. Maca also contains anthocyanins (of blueberry fame) which have been shown to enhance memory, problem-solving skills, and equilibrium/balance in the elderly.

     ■ Healthier Joints. Joint replacement has become commonplace. Your joints are at risk of needing this radical solution mainly because joint cartilage is naturally subject to breaking down (catabolism) and not too good at building itself back up (anabolism). If you lose enough cartilage to have bone against bone, you’re in serious trouble and serious pain. Maca could prevent that. A recent study using human cartilage found that maca almost triples cartilage’s anabolic activity, even if there’s current inflammation. When combined with the anti-inflammatory action of another Peruvian herb, cat’s claw, the anabolic stimulation in the cartilage almost quadruples.

     ■ A Healthier Liver. When a medicinal plant is revealed to have significant health benefits, but hasn’t yet given up its secrets about how it works, there’s understandably some concern about whether it might be causing some harm behind the scenes. One reason to discount those concerns about maca is that it’s been used with success, as food and medicine for young and old without reports of any harmful effects, for a couple thousand years—that’s
more than you can say about prescription drugs like Vioxx. In the case of maca, lab studies show that not only does it not hurt your liver, it actually appears to have liver-protective effects through some mechanism other than its impressive antioxidant powers.

     ■ Adaptogen. The list of achievements attributed to maca is far-reaching. It’s been referred to as Andean ginseng for its ability to boost strength, energy, and vitality. It’s been hailed as an immunostimulant, an anabolic, a hormone balancer, a tonic for intestinal
malabsorption, a cure for protein deficiency, a softener of side effects during chemotherapy, an AIDS treatment booster, and a rescue medication during allergy attacks. It’s been shown to have antidepressant activity. In animal studies, it significantly decreases LDL (bad) cholesterol and triglyceride levels, significantly improves glucose tolerance, lowers blood glucose, and increases the activity of free radical scavengers in the liver and blood.

     This all may sound like a disjointed and unbelievable mish-mash of unrelated benefits, but that’s the hallmark of a very good adaptogen. Adaptogens are Nature’s greatest gift because they work by promoting the body’s ability to shrug off the imbalances caused by stress. Stress comes in many forms—work pressure, family crises, injuries, surgery, illnesses, menopause—and the resultant disruption in your body’s ability to compensate is at the root of just about every health problem you face as you age. A true adaptogen provides a means by which your body can smile in spite of your stressors. It allows you to return, with shoulders back, to the balanced state of inner strength where natural healing can take place. Maca has been shown to reverse stressinduced ulcers, bring stress-elevated cortisol levels back to normal, and reduce the elevated glucose and weight gain that result from chronic stress. Maca’s proven adaptogenic powers will probably turn out to be the one of the keys to all its health benefits.

Different Maca Formulations

     The various colors of maca root have differences that are more than just skin deep. Each color represents what’s known as a phenotype: a unique variety that’s identifiable by its appearance. The phenotypes have their own specific benefits. For example, animal studies comparing the strengths of red, yellow, and black maca have shown that red maca has particular power as a protector of the prostate gland. Yellow and black maca, on the other hand, are stronger as modulators of sperm count.

    For health conditions that concern both sexes, a maca product that combines all the phenotypes will give you the best results. I’ve used Organic Royal Maca from Whole World Botanicals, and enjoy the sense of well-being that it generates. (See the Resources section on page 8 for contact information.)

    For more specific benefits, you’ll want to look for a product that includes selected varieties of maca. An Australian company called Natural Health International (NHI) has used this new knowledge about the phenotypes to create separate formulas that address areas of women’s and men’s health.

    Maca’s adaptogenic properties make it ideal for relieving the stressed-out systems of menstruating and menopausal women. After carefully selecting four specific phenotypes of maca for their targeted benefits, NHI has produced a high-potency formulation called Maca-GO. The company’s clinical trials have shown that Maca-GO restores balance in all the major female hormones, resulting in a decrease of typical pre-, peri-, and postmenopausal symptoms
such as PMS, bloating, hot flashes, night sweats, and mood swings. Levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which typically rise in response to stress, significantly decrease under the influence of Maca-GO, with an associated decrease in anxiety and stress reported on a standard scale of menopausal symptoms. Circulating calcium levels rise, which
offers support for thinning bone density. And, while significant weight gain is a common consequence of chronic stress, after four months of taking Maca-GO women have enjoyed a 6 percent weight loss. Most importantly, maca achieves menopausal relief not by adding hormones or targeting symptoms but rather by helping your body restore its own balance. As a
result, you not only feel better as you approach, go through, and move beyond the change, you really are better: healthier overall. NHI recommends a dose of two 500-mg capsules of Maca-GO twice daily.

     As men age, decreased energy and low vitality are common complaints. NHI has also created a high potency maca formulation just for men, called Maca-OG. By choosing specific phenotypes of maca for their known pharmacologic effects, NHI has produced a formula targeted for the decline in testosterone and growth hormone that naturally occurs in a man’s 30s and beyond. NHI recommends a dose of two 750-mg capsules containing Maca-OG twice daily.

    I was surprised and pleased to find the wealth of research that’s been done with maca in Western facilities over the past several years, beyond the redhot marketable stuff about its aphrodisiac effects. The truth is that when you’re healthy and balanced and stress rolls off your back, everything works better, including your libido, and that’s what a good adaptogen can do for you. I’m sure investigators will keep digging, to see what else maca has to offer and
to figure out how on earth this humble root vegetable can have such heavenly effects. There’ll probably be a lot more to write about in a very short time.

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