Maca for Women

The Health Benefits of Maca for Women

People in Peru have been using maca root for centuries for its many health benefits. They eat the hypocotyls of the plant to boost their energy levels and their sexual functions.

More recent scientific studies have shown that eating maca derived products has many medicinal benefits. These studies have also found that maca acts as a powerful adaptogen. Basically, this means that maca has the ability to give you only the nutrients that you need from it. For this reason, maca became popular for its capacity to balance hormones in the body. Women, especially those in their pre-menstrual stages, are the ones that can greatly benefit from this property of maca.

Maca does not produce hormones but it helps your body to produce the hormones that you are deficient in. This balancing ability of maca enables your body to maintain its overall wellness. Just think about how it can relieve women from the many physical and emotional stresses connected with PMS. It is also adequately proven by recent studies that maca is perfectly safe for most women. Aside from giving women hormonal balance, it has also been found that maca helps to maintain their feminine shape. If you are a woman struggling with problems relating to PMS and other health condition, taking maca will definitely help you deal with the stress. Following are the following health benefits of maca for women.

Some of the Notable Health Benefits of Maca for Women

• Maca Alleviates Menopause Symptoms – because of its adaptogen capabilities, maca brings about the balancing of your body’s hormones. It will balance the production of your estrogen, progesterone and testosterone levels. Taking maca will therefore significantly reduce your hot flashes, mood swings, night sweats, etc.
• Improves Your Sexual Functions – a positive side effect to your hormonal balance is the improvement of your sexual functions and increase in your libido. This is now one reason of the popularity of maca in the West.
• Controls Osteoporosis – researchers have confirmed that maca contains more calcium than milk. Taking making will significantly slow the weakening of your bones due to osteoporosis.
• Increases Energy Levels – maca has significant amounts of carbohydrates, amino acids and minerals that induce the production of hormones in your body. As the levels of these nutrients increase, so does your overall strength. This will result in more energy and a healthier tonic effect for your whole system.
• Protection Against Diseases – according to some researches, balancing hormone levels such as progesterone have an added benefit of having a sort of protection from diseases like uterine cancer and breast cancer.
• Helps Maintain Your Feminine Figure – many women who have used maca for other health reasons have testified that they have increased their breast size. This may be the result of the adaptogen characteristic of maca. It helps to augment the growth in areas where the estrogen is too low.

Who Can Obtain The Most Benefit From Maca

Here are the types of women who can gain health benefits from taking maca.

• Those who have been taking HRT (hormone replacement therapy) for at least one year. HRT drugs usually cause the atrophy of the ovaries. Maca does not replace the hormones but it balances hormone levels. As it acts as an adaptogen, it will have an effect that is appropriate to the age and sex of the user. It will provide better nutritional support to induce your hormonal balance.
• Those who are younger and on their peri-menopausal stage – with difficult menstrual periods, and who have problems with PMS.
• Those who are on their Menopausal and Post-Menopausal Stages. Women on this stage of life are often hampered by the imbalance of their estrogen-progesterone ratio. Taking maca balances the levels of these hormones.

General Guidelines in Taking Maca

In taking maca, you must always remember that we each have our own peculiar reactions to substances introduced in our bodies. Maca is a very powerful agent and we must determine our own dose and not just follow what is right for other people. However, there are general dosages that women can safely use for treating common health conditions. Here are some of the guidelines for taking maca.

• If you are already taking maca regularly, it is advisable to take a week off after every four weeks. In other words, stop for one week after taking it continuously for one month. If you have been consuming maca regularly for three months, take the next month off. Experts say that this is necessary to keep your body always responsive to phytonutrients.
• For maintenance, start with ¼ teaspoon during breakfast and repeat the same in your supper.
• If you are feeling sick, increase this dosage to one teaspoon at breakfast and another at dinner. After the symptoms are gone, return to the minimum daily dosage.
• Some people respond to maca faster than others. While some may feel the effects after 7 to 10 days, others may take a month before feeling any improvement. If you fail to notice any improvement in your condition in one week, increase your dose in small amounts until you notice an improvement. Your total maximum dosage per day should not exceed 3 teaspoons (15 grams) unless you are under the supervision of a health professional.