MEDICINAL & CURATIVE PROPERTIES OF MACA ROOT

This page lists a variety of articles about the medicinal and curative properties of maca root...

Article #1: (Physician's note)
(Source: Dr. Garry P. Gordan, American College for Advancement in Medicine.)

Maca as an Anti-Aging Herb for both men and women

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. Speaking with me from Payson, Arizona, 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 believes. "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," says Dr. Gordon. "Of course, as someone interested in longevity, I'm aware that mortality comes on much sooner for those individuals whose sexual activity is diminished or nonexistent. In other words, 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." 

Article #2: (Physician's Note)
(Source: Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD)

Maca provides an answer to the effects of aging on the endocrine system

American Physician Gabriel Cousens, MD, believes this herb has the potential of a balanced answer to the effects of aging on the endocrine system. Many who have tried phytoestrogens and/or precursor hormones such as DHEA or pregnenolone, or even natural hormone replacement therapy and have been dissatisfied, are getting excellent results from their use of maca root.

Gabriel Cousens, MD, practicing internal medicine in Patagonia, Arizona, says, "Whenever possible, I prefer to use maca therapy rather than hormone replacement therapy because HRT actually ages the body diminishing the hormone producing capability of the glands. Maca has proven to be very effective with menopausal patients in eliminating hot flashes and depression and in increasing energy levels. They find the right dosage level, sometimes I have started the patient on maca treatment with a half a teaspoon of powder or three capsules a day. In some cases I have raised the dosage to a teaspoon or six capsules a day for full effectiveness."

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Article #3: (Physician's Note and Testimonial)
(Source: Dr. Henry Campanile, MD)

Doctor offers Maca as an Adrenal balancing root

Henry Campanile, M.D., offers Adrenal balancing Maca root to his patients. In keeping with its mode of acting through the hypothalamus and pituitary, Maca has a balancing and nourishing effect on the adrenal glands. Henry Campanile, MD, a 50-year old specialist in internal and family/ complementary 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 around for an alternative, and this circumstance is what got me interested in complementary medicine. I started using pregnenelone about 10 years ago and it has been fairly satisfactory. But one of my patients told me about Maca, and I started taking it about a month ago. 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 and told me how rested I seem. I've got so much energy now have started an exercise program."

After trying it out on himself, Dr.Campanile began using maca with his patients. "My first patient to take the maca capsules was experiencing hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms. She started feeling much better after using this herb for only four days. I'm also employing it with patients who have low adrenal function."

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Article #4: (Physician's Note)
(Source: Dr. Jorge A Calderon, MD)

Peruvian pioneer prescribes Maca

Another Peruvian pioneer in the therapeutic application of maca integrated into a modern medical practice is Jorge Aguila Calderon, MD. An intemist, Dr.Aguila Calderon is former Chief of the Department of Biological Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Human Medicine at the National University of Federico Villarreal in Lima.

Like Dr. Malaspina and others, (See notes on other science pages), he prescribes maca for a wide variety of conditions including osteoporosis and the healing of bone fractures in the very elderly. "Maca has a lot of easily absorbable calcium in it, plus magnesium, and a fair amount of allies which we are finding very useful in treating the decalcification of bones in children and adults."

Along with prescribing an excellent diet and certain lifestyle changes, Dr. Aguila Calderon has helped patients with male impotence, male sterility, and female sterility by employing maca therapy. Additional problems he treats with maca are rickets, various forms of anemia, menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, climacteric and erectile difficulties in men, premature aging, and general states of weakness such as chronic fatigue.

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Article #5: (Physician's Note)
(Source: Dr. Harold Clark, MD)

Another American doctor who has recently began to use maca therapeutically for some patients is from New Rochelle, New York. Dr. Clark, who utilizes chelation therapy and ozone therapy in addition to herbs, vitamins and minerals in his practice stated, "I'm amazed at how fast maca worked on two patients that I have been concerned about for some time."

He described one patient as 55 year-old Mary T, a postmenopausal, woman. Mary T was possessed of numerous health problems, including somewhat elevated blood sugar, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, and hypomagnesemia. She had been acutely ill for two months with osteomyelitis and generalized sepsis. Unable to work, she was suffering from great fatigue and depression and feeling 'worse and worse' over the last five years. "Within just four days of taking the maca capsules, Mary T went through an enormous turnaround," said Dr. Clark. "She has gone out to shop in the stores; she's cleaning her house; she feels strong and vigorous; and her depression is gone."

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Over the years, housewives, doctors, husbands, the elderly, and people from all walks of life have sent in their stories to the HERBS AMERICA COMPANY offices. The subjects cover many experiences relating to Maca root.

If you have an interesting Maca experience of your own you'd like to share with others as a testimonial, please email us and we'll publish it online with your permission.

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