34 MENOPAUSE SYMPTOMS

MacaActive: Peru's Natural Viagra
article by:Chris Kilham

"The South American country of Peru is home to numerous beneficial plants, including maca, a legendary sex-enhancing root passed down from the Inca. I'd heard about maca for years. It has been dubbed "Peruvian ginseng," even though it bears no relation to ginseng. But like ginseng, the plant is employed to increase strength, energy, stamina, libido and sexual function, a winning combination of health benefits if there ever was one".

What is Maca?

Maca, Lepidium meyenii, is an annual plant which produces a radish-like root. The root of maca is typically dried and stored, and will easily keep for seven years. The plant is cultivated in the Junin plateau of Peru's Central Highlands, and was highly revered by the Inca.

During the height of the Incan empire, legend has it that Incan warriors would consume maca before entering into battle. This would make them fiercely strong. But after conquering a city the Incan soldiers were prohibited from using maca, to protect the conquered women from their powerful sexual impulses. Thus as far back as 500 years ago, maca's reputation for enhancing strength, libido and fertility was already well established in Peru.

Today, maca's popularity is very much on the increase, as people discover that the plant really does boost libido, sexual function and overall energy. Acreage in Peru dedicated to Maca cultivation is increasing every year to meet demand, and a number of scientists have turned their attention to the properties of the root. In Peru, maca is used by men and by women who want to put more fire into their sex lives. And in the U.S., Europe and Japan, dietary supplements containing maca are gaining ardent devotees.

 

Maca Nutrition

What natural ingredients in maca promote its reputed sex-enhancing effects? In-depth analysis of maca conducted in 1998 by Dr. Qun Yi Zheng and his colleagues at Pure World Botanicals shows that maca contains about 10 percent protein, almost 60 percent carbohydrate, and an assortment of fatty acids. These ingredients are common and nothing special. But the investigators also discovered two groups of novel compounds, the macamides and the macaenes. These agents are believed to be directly responsible for maca's sex-boosting powers.

Today, maca's popularity is very much on the increase, as people discover that the plant really helps women to restore estrogen levels, improve sexual function and overall energy - Chris Kilham, medicine hunter.

Reprinted from Nature & Health Magazine, December 1999/ January 2000

"Rather than hormone replacement therapy (HRT), millions of women are putting their faith in a remedy which has been used for 10,000 years, which is safe and amazingly effective: a cruciferous root vegetable from Peru, called maca".


The scientist responsible for much of the current knowledge of the maca root is Dr. Gloria Chacon de Popivici, a biologist trained at the University of San Marcos, in Lima, Peru.

Dr. Chacon says that maca root works in a fundamentally different way than HRT, promoting optimal functioning of the hypothalamus and the pituitary, thereby improving the functioning of all the endocrine glands responsible of producing your own human hormones . It is important to remember that maca does not contain any hormones, but its action in the body jogs the pituitary into producing the precursor hormones, which ultimately end up raising estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels, as well as helping to balance the adrenal glands, the thyroid and the pancreas. But this occurs naturally, not with time-bomb drugs, which throw the entire body into a dangerous state of confusion.

And men, too, find that maca can 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.