Maca: A Natural Alternative to HRT
Maca has been found to be effective in relieving the menopausal symptoms of hot flushes, night sweats, depression, irritability, headaches & lowered libido.
If you’ve not tried Maca before it is a root of a plant used in South America to treat imbalances in female hormones and it tastes slightly sweet like butterscotch.
In scientific study on 168 caucasian menopausal women Maca was found to be an effective natural alternative to hormone replacement therapy (HRT). In the words of the researchers Maca was “superior to HRT in terms of all the additional benefits (…) not delivered by HRT programs or phyto-estrogenic preparations” for menopausal women.” 2.
Symptoms relief
Maca was found to reduced both frequency and severity of menopausal symptoms especially:
• hot flushes and night sweating (with a significance of P<0.001)
• nervousness
• depression
• headaches
• loss of libido/interest in sex.
As well as increasing ‘good’ cholesterol high density lipoproteins (HDL) (P<0.05).
Dosage matters
The study used 2 x 500 mg capsules twice daily with meals (total 2 g/day) during three and four months study periods. At the 2 month mark there was a distinctive reduction in severity of symptoms.
The study used a formulation of Maca called pre-gelatinized organic Maca so if it is those results you are after it’s that product you need to use.
More Maca research
Maca consistently shows its helpfulness in menopausal symptom relief in healthy peri-menopausal, early post-menopausal, and late post-menopausal women 1.
A high quality systematic review of Maca found it consistently caused a significant positive effect on sexual dysfunction or sexual desire in healthy menopausal women. 3.
Any bad news about Maca?
A systematic review of Maca highlighted:
1. As it is thought Maca increases oestrogen levels it should be avoided by women who have oestrogen sensitive conditions including cancers or a strong family history of these.
2. One argument for using Maca for the management of menopausal symptoms might be that it causes fewer adverse effects than conventional drug treatments, however, whilst none of the trials noted any adverse events among Maca users a specific study on adverse events has not been undertaken.
3. Only a small number of trials on Maca have been performed and with a relatively small number of people.
Here is a delicious recipe using Maca powder http://www.superfoodliving.com/maca-superfood-energy-bars
In health,
Sonia x
References:
1. Lee, M. S., Shin, B. C., Yang, E. J., Lim, H. J., & Ernst, E. (2011). Maca (Lepidium meyenii) for treatment of menopausal symptoms: A systematic review. Maturitas, 70(3), 227-233. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2011.07.017
2. Meissner, H. O., Mscisz, A., Reich-Bilinska, H., Kapczynski, W., Mrozikiewicz, P., Bobkiewicz-Kozlowska, T., … & Barchia, I. (2006). Hormone-balancing effect of pre-gelatinized organic Maca (Lepidium peruvianum Chacon):(II) physiological and symptomatic responses of early-postmenopausal women to standardized doses of Maca in double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, multi-centre clinical study. International Journal of Biomedical Science: IJBS, 2(4), 360. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614647/
3. Shin, B. C., Lee, M. S., Yang, E. J., Lim, H. S., & Ernst, E. (2010). Maca (L. meyenii) for improving sexual function: A systematic review. BMC Complementary and Alternative medicine, 10(1), 44. doi:10.1186/1472-6882-10-44