Love Is in the Air with Royal Maca ❤
Viana Muller, Ph.D.
Valentine’s Day is on the way, and love is in the air! At least love is supposed to be in the air! For far too many of us, age, stress, and the environment are wreaking havoc on our hormones and preventing passion! That means there’s never been a better time to consider Maca to rev up your hormones!
Maca – also known as maca root and by its botanical name, Lepidium meyenii/peruvianum – is a cruciferous root vegetable native to the highlands of Peru that grows at altitudes 14,000 feet above sea level. Maca grows at a higher altitude than any other food plant on the planet, and it has an attribute—the ability to create hormone balance in the human body—that is unsurpassed.
The story of Maca goes back thousands of years in Peru, where indigenous Peruvians have grown, harvested, heated, or cooked – and enthusiastically consumed – Maca as both a food and a botanical remedy. Maca is never eaten raw in Peru. Instead, in the Central
Sierra, where it was one of the earliest domesticated food plants of Peru, Maca was – and still is – boiled and eaten as a soup or prepared as a tonic beverage with sugar added. Boiled Maca is also added to oatmeal to provide more nutrition for children or added to stews. The people of the region especially prize Maca for its ability to promote energy, vitality, libido, sexual function, hormonal balance, and fertility – in both women and men.
I first learned about Maca back in 1994 on one of my yearly visits to Peru. I was there to secure our supply of Cat’s Claw that Elena – my cofounder of Whole World Botanicals – and I were already distributing in the U.S. It was big news on the front page of Peru’s most respected newspaper, El Commercio, when I arrived. I immediately searched out a reputable supply and was so impressed with Maca’s incredible properties (and how I felt using it myself!) that I made it my mission to bring high-quality, properly grown, and traditionally prepared Maca to the U.S. market. As a result, I’m proud to say that Whole World Botanicals is credited with pioneering America’s introduction to authentic Peruvian Maca!
The Rise of Maca
Since we introduced our Royal Maca® more than 20 years ago, Maca has become a phenomenon. Online retailers and health food stores now promote a plethora of Maca products, available not only as powder and capsules but added into smoothie mixes, coffee, and even candy bars!
Unfortunately, many people aren’t aware that the Maca flooding the American market comes from China, not Peru. Chinese Maca is usually quite ineffective and cheap because it’s mass-produced and grown at low altitudes in depleted soil, often in pesticide-laden environments. Chinese Maca is not sun-dried as it is in Peru, where sun-drying is a time-consuming, labor-intensive task made more difficult by the unpredictable rains spurred by the climate crisis. But it is the sun-drying over a period of 6-8 weeks, instead of using high heat commercial dryers for a few hours to dry the maca roots, that protects the extraordinary hormone-balancing isothiocyanates contained by the Maca root. Most Chinese Maca has also not been cooked or gelatinized. In Peru, maca is never eaten raw! the way it’s used traditionally in Peru. Raw Maca is likely to cause stomach upset and slow down thyroid function.
All this means that Chinese Maca is, at best, “recreational” – not therapeutic – making it far less effective as a botanical remedy. You need to take large amounts of Chinese Maca to experience any health benefits…if any!
Our Royal Maca® – available as a powder and capsules in various formulations – is different. Royal Maca® is pure (no fillers, no pesticides), sun-dried, certified organic Maca root grown in its traditional Peruvian territory at an extremely high altitude. Our Royal Maca® is also traditionally harvested at the full moon. After sun-drying, Royal Maca® is properly “cooked” using a flash-high heat, gelatinization process. This process destroys the slightly toxic enzymes and some of the carbohydrates, while maintaining the valuable hormone-balancing isothiocyanates, along with its selenium and other minerals and vitamins. This process ensures that Royal Maca® is a highly potent, concentrated, and therapeutic Maca effective for health and hormonal balance.
Maca Helps Put Love in the Air
Low sex drive is a far-too-common problem. Studies have found that low libido – or a lack of libido – affects around 30% of men and 45% of women across the globe! Enter Maca! Maca has a well-deserved reputation as a libido-enhancer for men and women. In fact, across the media, Maca has been called “Botanical Viagra,” “Peruvian Ginseng,” “the Viagra for Menopausal Women,” and an “Herbal Aphrodisiac!” And it’s not just talk; there’s real science behind it!
One study looked at men aged 20 to 60. A group of men took 1.5 grams (about 3 capsules) of therapeutic Maca daily; the other group took 3 grams (about 6 capsules) daily over 12 weeks. At the end of the trial, both groups reported a significant increase in their libido and sexual desire! (And the men taking a higher dose of Maca had a greater benefit!) Note, however, that men vary in their body’s response to Maca root, and if you take more than your body can assimilate and use, it can be overstimulating, causing a loss of libido and energy. That means that more is not necessarily better when taking Maca, and our Royal Maca® is especially potent!
Another study looked at men and women with low libido due to the use of antidepressants. The researchers found that therapeutic Maca helped alleviate antidepressant‐induced sexual dysfunction. They also found a potential dose‐related effect – the higher the dose, the greater the effect. Maca also appeared to have a beneficial effect on libido.
Maca has also been shown to help improve mild erectile dysfunction in men. One study reported that a daily dose of 2.4 grams (about 4+ capsules) of therapeutic Maca over 12 weeks had a measurable impact on sexual dysfunction in the men studied!
Many women taking birth control pills report a severe decline in libido resulting from the effects of these pills. Most women are taking an estrogen-progestin combination birth control pill. We don’t recommend taking Royal Maca® if you’re on this type of birth control pill because it will generally produce a nauseous feeling, indicating an overstimulating, unbalancing effect on your hormonal system. But if you’re one of the fortunate women taking the progestin-only “mini-pill” for birth control, reports from our customers indicate that taking Royal Maca® (one or two capsules daily) restored their libido nicely with no adverse side effects!
And, of course, we know from many journal studies that potent, therapeutic Maca can help improve vitality, increase energy, and support healthy sex hormone balance in men and women. In fact, many women successfully use Maca to alleviate the symptoms of PMS, perimenopause, and menopause and to support post-menopausal sexual function, vitality, and sleep. Many men find that it’s unnecessary to medicalize their declining sexual function due to chronic stress or advancing age. Instead, they rely on Maca to support healthy testosterone levels. And balanced sex hormones promote a healthier, happier sex life at every age! *
It’s the Right Time for Royal Maca®!
As noted, low libido and sexual dysfunction are widespread problems. And, in recent years, we’ve faced an increasingly long list of assaults on our hormonal balance. Endocrine and hormone disruptors damage our hormones. A recent study found that worldwide, men’s production of semen has declined by 50%. Add to that chronic stress, which destabilizes our hormones. And many of us also have a diet that is too high in refined sugar and white flour, and low in organic vegetables and fruit, creating nutritional imbalances and deficiencies that leave us unable to properly utilize the declining hormones we do have!
We also have a generation of Baby Boomers who are going through perimenopause, menopause, and andropause (also called “male menopause” – a real phenomenon) and suffering the symptoms of declining estrogen and testosterone. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical treatments recommended by doctors – hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women and testosterone treatment in men – come with a long list of risks and concerns.
That’s why there’s never been a better time for natural, therapeutic Royal Maca®! With its innate ability to support the endocrine system and support hormonal balance, Royal Maca® is a solution provided by nature for today’s hormonal challenges.
CITATIONS
Gonzales GF, Córdova A, Vega K, Chung A, Villena A, Góñez C, Castillo S. Effect of Lepidium meyenii (MACA) on sexual desire and its absent relationship with serum testosterone levels in adult healthy men. Andrologia. 2002 Dec;34(6):367-72. doi: 10.1046/j.1439-0272.2002.00519.x. PMID: 12472620. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12472620/
Dording CM, Fisher L, Papakostas G, Farabaugh A, Sonawalla S, Fava M, Mischoulon D. A double-blind, randomized, pilot dose-finding study of maca root (L. meyenii) for the management of SSRI-induced sexual dysfunction. CNS Neurosci Ther. 2008 Fall;14(3):182-91. doi: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00052.x. PMID: 18801111; PMCID: PMC6494062. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6494062/
Zenico T, Cicero AF, Valmorri L, Mercuriali M, Bercovich E. Subjective effects of Lepidium meyenii (Maca) extract on well-being and sexual performances in patients with mild erectile dysfunction: a randomised, double-blind clinical trial. Andrologia. 2009 Apr;41(2):95-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1439-0272.2008.00892.x. PMID: 19260845. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19260845/
