Can Maca Root be taken with progesterone?
Hi Catherine,
What do you know about Maca root? Could it be taken in conjunction with progesterone?
Thanks for responding,
Sylvia
Dear Sylvia,
Maca is a vegetable root or tuber, related to the potato family.
For centuries, the Maca root has grown wild in the Peruvian Andes just below the glacial icecap, between 3800 (12500 feet) and 4400 meters (14450 feet) above the sea level. The only area where this particular species of maca is found is a region of extreme weather conditions such as freezing, high winds, and intensive sunlight.
No other food plant exists in the world which will grow at so high an altitude and survive.
The rich soil located at these high plateaus of Peru where it is very cold and oxygen poor may account for the high levels of trace minerals found in maca root. Some Peruvian Indians of today still grow it in the same traditional way without pesticides or chemicals.
The healing qualities of maca have helped the local native population thrive in this oxygen-poor plateau where they live. Maca root contains significant amounts of amino acids, complex carbohydrates, vitamins B1, B2, B12, C and E and minerals, including calcium, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium and iron.
Maca is an adaptogenic plant, which means it works on the body according to the needs, age and gender of the person taking it. It is reputed to encourage the glands within the body to produce the needed hormones by balancing the pituitary-hypothalamus axis. Its effect are not limited to the sex glands but also affecting the entire endocrine system including the adrenals, thyroid and pancreas.
People of all ages may benefit by using this vegetable to give their body support when stressed, out of balance or simply due to the natural processes of ageing.
According to doctors in Peru and the US, Maca may be of benefit for:
- It balances the hormones in both men and women
- Improves PMS
- Supports menopausal health
- Enhances libido in both men and women
- Increases energy
- Improves male potency
- Increases fertility
- Stimulates the metabolism
- Regulates hormonal secretion
- Improves memory
- Combats amenia
- Fights depression
- and much more…
Maca introduces no hormones, synthetic or “natural”, which may communicate to the body that is can shut down its own factory. Rather, it encourages your body to go back and produce what it is calling for, at the time it is calling for it, meeting its own needs without outside intervention.
Maca gives the body the chance to readjust, regulate and heal, affecting us at a cellular level. Because it is a natural product not designed to stimulate, it works harmoniously with the body’s own self regulating system and can take time to have a beneficial effect.
The overall botanical name of the Maca plant species is Lepidium meyenii. However, there is a variance between this and the variety Lepidium peruvian Chacon. The Chacon variety, named after Dr Gloria Chacon, refers specifically to the plants (and maca root) of the species found to contain the four essential alkaloids of the traditional medicine plant. These alkaloids are missing in the plants belonging to the broader meyenii group.
Peruvian medical doctors say 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.
They isolated four alkaloids from the maca root and carried out animal studies with male and female rats given either powdered maca root or the alkaloids. Females receiving either root powder or alkaloids showed multiple egg follicle maturation, while in males, significantly higher sperm production and motility rates were noted than in control groups.
They 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,” they said. They 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.
Research has shown that maca contains no plant hormones, unlike soy / genistein and black cohosh. Instead, its action relies on plant sterols, which act as chemical triggers to help the body itself produce a higher level of hormones appropriate to the age and gender of the person taking it. Clinical case studies have shown that maca can be effective for PMS syndrome (PMS), as well as menopausal symptoms, and may help symptoms of hypothyroidism as well.
Alan Warshowsky, M.D., is an ob-gyn who serves as Director of Women?s Health at the Continuum Center for Health and Healing at Beth Israel Hospital in New York. Says Dr. Warshowsky: “At least 50 percent of my menopausal patients are using maca and doing well. I don?t recommend the genistein supplements made from soy, since research has shown that they can have a stimulating effect on breast cancer cells.?
Cynthia Watson, M.D., a Santa Monica physician specializing in women?s health, integrated the use of maca into her approach to menopausal symptoms six years ago. Says Dr. Watson, ” I give my patients a choice - either natural hormones which are made to be bioidentical to human estrogen and progesterone or maca extract.” In her opinion both approaches are equally successful. “The ones who have chosen to go with maca extract are doing phenomenally well,” she added.
Karen Paris, a Physician?s Assistant of the Atkins Center in New York, the clinic founded by famed weight loss expert Robert Atkins, M.D., has said that the clinic began using organic maca root extract last year, finding it more effective for their menopausal patients than the phytoestrogenic herbs.
Says Paris, “We have had great success using maca in conjunction with some nutritional supplements, to wean women off of hormone replacement therapy. Some of them have been on HRT for many years. For the few women who still have some symptoms, we have developed a combination protocol that works very well, involving maca extract and a tiny amount of natural estrogen together with natural progesterone - which unlike progestin, is not carcinogenic.”
Dr Jorge Aguila Calderon, Dean of the Faculty of Human Medicine at the National University of Federico Villareal in Lima, prescribes maca for a wide variety of conditions, including osteoporosis and the healing of bone fractures in the very elderly. He says, “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 decalcification of bones in children and adults.”
Dr Calderon has also 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 anaemia, menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, climacteric and erectile difficulties in men, premature ageing, and general states of weakness, such as chronic fatigue.
What makes maca so effective, according to Dr. Malaspina, a respected cardiologist in Lima, is that rather than introducing hormones from outside the body, maca encourages the ovaries and other glands to produce the needed hormones. The cardiologist said, “Maca regulates the organs of internal secretion, such as the pituitary, the adrenal glands, the pancreas, etc. I have perhaps 200 female patients whose premenopausal and postmenopausal symptoms are alleviated by taking maca.”
Physicians in the United States believe this herb has the potential of a balanced answer to the effects of ageing on the endocrine system. Many who have tried phytoestrogens and/or precursor hormones such as DHEA or pregnenelone, or even natural hormone replacement therapy and have been dissatisfied, are getting excellent results from their use of maca root.
Garry P 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. Dr Gordon says: “We all hear rumors about various products like maca. But using this Peruvian root myself, I personally experienced a significant improvement in erectile tissue. 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 the capability to forestall hormonal changes of ageing,”
You want Maca that has been harvested from high in the Andres Mountains of South America (between 13,000 and 15,000 feet above sea level). This is where Maca has been naturally growing for over 2,000 years. Every positive study on Maca has used this high altitude Maca. Recently companies have tried to grow Maca at low altitudes - but the nutritional makeup is vastly inferior and users do not see positive results with this low altitude Maca.
The Maca root must be air dried. This is a very low tech process of leaving the picked Maca roots out for several months until they dry out. To save money, some companies use ovens to quickly dry the Maca. There is evidence that heating the Maca destroys many of the nutrients in the root.
Maca does not need to be irradiated. Many US companies will radiate the Maca to sterilize it. Other companies use alcohol to sterilize the roots. The truth is that the germ count in soil at 13,000 feet is so low that sterilization is not necessary. The radiation used to sterilize Maca tends to kill off the valuable nutrients in the Maca root. You clearly want to look for a Maca that has not be irradiated.
It is important to take enough, to take it regularly (twice a day) and to give enough time for the Maca to work with your endocrine system, which will depend on your intial state of health. Some people notice a beneficial difference within 2 weeks and others will take longer (up to 3 months). The usual dose of maca (in standardized extract form) is 300 mg three times a day.
Foods tend not to generate side effects unless they are highly concentrated or an allergy has developed. Although maca has long been consumed as a food (boiled and eaten much like a sweet potato), little is known about the potential adverse effects of taking it in a concentrated pill form or at much higher dosages than customarily recommended for traditional use.
Sylvia, it makes sense to trial nutritional, herbal, and dietary methods first before supplementing natural hormones. And, by all accounts, Maca promises a nontoxic solution to menopause symptoms and hormonal rejuvenation with no apparent downside effects. If Maca works miracles as touted, then you may not require progesterone. Wouldn’t that be good news for you?
If, however, you do genuinely require progesterone supplementation, then make sure you employ the support of a competent and caring healthcare professional who’ll oversee that you hormone levels remain within the recommended reference range.
Where to buy Maca?
Australia:
UK & Europe:
