Maca for Men

There is no shortage of exotic ingredients vying for the seemingly fickle spotlight of the consuming public and their voracious appetite for natural products that can make their lives healthier and happier. There also is no shortage of such products aimed at women, who dominate the natural health shopper-scape. For men, the excitement and ensuing frenzy have been far less frequent or abundant. However, words like virility, libido and strength certainly grab the average male attention span, and one herb that has long promised these potent outcomes is maca.

Industry Insider Terry Lemerond, founder of Europharma, opened his Terry Talks Nutrition blog to a guest column from the Medicine Hunter Chiris Kilham. An Explorer in Residence at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he teaches the popular ethnobotany course entitled The Shamans Pharmacy, Kilham has championed the benefits and historical use of maca, Lepidium meyenii, the only cruciferous plant native to Peru.

According to Kilham, maca was cultivated some 2,000 years ago on the Junin plateau of Perus Central Highlands, where eventually the Spanish were encouraged by the Incans to feed the plant to the horses, in the absence of grasses at this altitude. Between their livestocks and their own consumption, the Spanish soon discovered a boost to fertility even in those inhospitable conditions. Since then maca enjoyed the advantages of several legends of its power to deliver strength and virility in explorers and soldiers.

Kilham reports maca is still prized in Peru, but has also expanded its prowess to Japan, Europe and even the United States. Despite its limited geographic cultivation range (between 10,000 and 15,000 feet), maca production is on the rise, due in part to increased support from government, private companies and increasing demand.

By weight, maca is 59 percent carbohydrate, 10 percent protein and 2.2 percent fat/lipidsmore than most root cropsincluding linoleic acid, palmitic acid and oleic acid. Other key nutrients include sterols, including sitosterol, campestrol, ergosterol, brassicasterol and ergostadienol, as well as minerals such as iron, magnesium, calcium, potassium and iodine. Noting the exact ingredient behind the sex-boosting benefits is not definitively known, but he pointed to the plant sterols and isothiocyanates as possible actives.

He referenced a few scientific studies showing daily intake or supplementation with maca improved sexual satisfaction and desire, erectile dysfunction (ED) function, endurance and psychological wellbeing in a range of males including patients with mild ED, trained athletes and those taking SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor)  antidepressants.