The maca root is known throughout history as a faithful women’s liberator when treating menopause symptoms. Historically, Peruvians used Maca both as food and as medicine. As a medicine, this root has been used, among others, to balance hormones and treat menopause.
The “You’ve come a long way” slogan might be familiar to you. It is directed to all baby boomers and all the women of this generation as they approach the new journey called menopause. But, the slogan does not end here. Instead, it continues: “but you’ve got such a long way to go!” This is true. All you need to do is approach this new journey easily and take control of your menopause. While some women sail through menopause without any problems, menopause can be an absolute dread to other women.
When women enter the period of menopause, certain adjustments are happening in the body. Ovarian functions are slowing down, the uterus is preparing for changes, and as a result, hormonal imbalance occurs with a noticeable imbalance in estrogen and progesterone levels. The brain is also trying to understand and get used to not getting desired responses from ovaries. As a result, the body gets confused and out of balance.
Menopause Symptoms
During this transitional period, women may experience one or more menopausal symptoms: Hot flashes, Loss of Libido, Mood swings, Night sweats, Vaginal dryness, Insomnia, Irritability, Irregular periods, Memory loss, Fatigue etc. Women will also often experience physical changes such as Headaches, Gum problems, Achy muscles, Dry skin (most likely dry skin occurs due to lack of collagen, which keeps the skin moisturized), Weight gain, or Digestive problems. The list of the physical, mental, and emotional changes related to menopause is simply too long and varies from person to person.
Why is Maca good for menopause?
Even though the well-known Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) has been prescribed as a remedy to relieve symptoms associated with menopause, many significant risks are associated with hormone therapy. As a result, women have been looking for alternative ways of alleviating menopause symptoms using herbs and natural products.
Maca & menopause
To determine whether these claims are valid, research in 14 postmenopausal women was carried out to examine Maca’s estrogenic and androgenic activity and its effect on the hormonal profile and symptoms. Each woman received 3.5 g/day of powdered Maca for 6 weeks. “Findings showed that maca reduces psychological symptoms, including anxiety and depression, and lowers measures of sexual dysfunction in postmenopausal women independent of estrogenic and androgenic activity”. In a different study, women in the early phase of their menopause were given to consume Maca for up to eight months.
Here, results showed that Maca helped to lower follicle-stimulating hormone (to have higher levels of follicle-stimulating hormones means there is a low estrogen production from ovaries) and increase luteinizing hormone, which is necessary to stimulate ovulation. All of these resulted in an increase in both estrogen levels and progesterone levels. According to studies, a reason for increased estrogen and progesterone levels is natural sterols present in Maca.
Where sterols in Maca help the body to produce its own natural hormones (rather than adding hormones to the system), thus stimulating the production of estrogen and progesterone according to individuals’ needs.
How does Maca help with hormone replacement therapy (HRT)? Unlike other HRT remedies, Maca does not supply the body with hormones (it does not supply plant hormones like phytoestrogens), and it does not cause ovaries to atrophy. Instead, Maca acts on the hypothalamus-pituitary gland and stimulates (acts in a regulatory manner) the body to produce its own hormones.
Whether your body is making too much or too little of a particular hormone, Maca includes everything you need. Using Maca, your system will safely get back into a balanced state, and symptoms of menopause such as night sweats, hot flashes, vaginal dryness, and sleeplessness will be significantly reduced. Maca adapts to the body’s needs and balances menopausal health. PS Remember: “You’ve come a long way, but you’ve got such a long way to go!” Enjoy the journey!!!”
