Since 1983, Townsend Letter has published a magazine for the entire alternative medicine community, presenting valuable information on a wide variety of alternative medicine topics. WWB was the first company to sponsor publication of scientific information on the use of Maca root for hormone balancing in the Townsend Journal for Doctors, Nov. 1998.
Below are some excerpts from the publication that are focused on men’s health.
Excerpts from Townsend Letter – Men’s Health
Whether discussions today are about estrogen replacement therapy, increasing male potency, or improving other hormonal functions, the solution 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.
"Now women have an alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT)," according to Viana Muller, ph.D., co-founder of Whole World Botanicals. "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."
Older Men Report a Boost in Sexual Performance
Hugo Malaspina, MD, a respected cardiologist in Lima, has been using the maca root in his practice for both his male and female patients for decades. He recalls that he first heard of 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 powdered 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."
What makes maca so effective, according to Dr. Malaspina, is that rather than introducing hormones from outside the body, maca encourages the ovaries, testes, and other glands to produce the needed hormones.
Maca 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 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 for an alternative. One of my patients told me about Royal Maca® and I started taking it. 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. I've got so much energy now I've started an exercise program."
Maca as an Anti-Aging Herb for Both Men and Women
Garry F. Gordon, MD, founder of the International College of Advanced Longevity medicine, located in Chicago, Illinois, bases his appreciation of maca on his own experience with it. 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 continues, "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. 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 is another enthusiast of maca. "I'm a 72-year-old man and this maca has taken 25 years off my aging sex life," declared Goldberg. "That's pretty important to me!"
Maca as a Solution to Society's Reproductive Problems
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 Royal Maca® is now readily available."
