men's health a lot but today i want to focus on the number one supplement
that not just men should be taking but i've had both men and women taking this and when i say
should be of course you want to check through with your doctor before you start anything but
the number one supplement that's going to help both men and women as it pertains to sexual health
and so much more so traditionally folk medicine has used this to enhance fertility
energy immune function sexual function and today holistic practitioners like myself consider it
useful for not just sexual function in both but also mood concentration memory
nerve function brain function sexual dysfunction menopausal symptoms because of all of this even
an antiviral component to it it can even suppress parkinson's disease and the cognitive decline that
comes with alzheimer's and this herbal supplement i don't feel like it gets talked about enough
it comes from the andes mountains and peruvian culture and it has been considered a medical food
for as long as documentation has been there it contains all of the essential amino acids
iron calcium copper zinc potassium so it's not only kind of a good tasting herbal supplement but
it also serves so much and so what we're going to do is go through all of these potential benefits
associated with maca root it's a resilient and powerful plant it withstands a lot and
it helps us thrive in a way that not many other supplements do without a lot of side effects
now when in the early 1500s noticed that people in the andes mountains were using this mostly
to enhance fertility but what they didn't realize is that there was so much more to it we find that
sperm and motility of sperm improves after being on maca root now most of the studies have been
done on rats and mice and not necessarily on humans but the potential of maca root to help
improve the quality of sperm appears very clear now we once thought that that meant that there
was boosting testosterone but actually it seems to suggest that macaroon may not necessarily boost
testosterone but it does improve the quality of sperm that's present it also boosts sex drive
for both men and women and it seems to be hormone independent meaning it doesn't rely on hormones so
studies of fifteen hundred to three 000 milligrams of maca root were compared with a placebo
and what they actually found is that compared to placebo there was an improvement in sexual desire
that was observed with maca after even just eight weeks of treatment now the interesting thing is
testosterone and estrogen did not change at all so it seems independent of hormones now
a study in 2015 actually looked at this in women and found it potentially useful in
women who have sexual dysfunction after taking an antidepressant so maybe you've been on prozac
or or one of the other ones and you know that you just don't crave sex macaroon could potentially
help with that now erectile dysfunction 2.5 milligrams were studied over the course of
12 weeks and the men who took maca root had an increased sense of sexual well-being now when it
comes to menopause when they did a double blinded placebo-controlled study and was a small study for
over three months what they found is that there was a noticeable decrease in anxiety nervousness
headaches night sweats and they also reported these women reported that they slept better they
were more focused they had a better ability to concentrate more energy improved thyroid function
even and that's why some physicians today actually we will opt for maca root first before we actually
even consider hormones and particularly in women who can't tolerate hormones another study improves
endurance they study maca root in cyclists and what they found is that there is an improvement in
endurance quality now the antioxidant potential of maca root seems to modulate something called super
oxide dismutase you can abbreviate sod and what at superoxide dismutase it is responsible to actually
fight free radicals free radicals damage our cells and render ourselves incapable of repair well what
they found in studies when they're looking at maca root to try to figure out hey how is it doing all
of these great things is that they actually found that there's some improvement in the activity and
the quality of superoxide dismutase when maca is taken over time now another thing when we when we
look at aging and just cognitive decline or mental decline in general what we find is that there is
somewhere in between a mitochondrial disruption mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell we need
the mitochondria to be strong and powerful what we find is that over time as people age mitochondrial
function starts to slow down and become impaired and not be as great as it used to be well there's
some data to suggest that maca root actually helps the mitochondria do their job better but also
it helps improve the quality of something called apoptosis apoptosis is cell death we think of cell
death and you're thinking oh gosh cell death is terrible no actually we want some cells to die but
we want some cells to stick around and be healthy maca root seems to actually help in this process
right so maca root is so powerful when used effectively it can help improve memory and protect
from the decline and the brain's ability to think and process thoughts we see this in studies on
post-menopausal women and we also see this in the brain quality of mice in the lab yes now
i don't want you to rush out and just say everybody should be on maca but what i want
you to consider is that maca root may be the one supplement now there's a bunch of other ones
but it may be the one thing that couples can take together couples can actually take maca
roots supplement it add it into their smoothie recipes like we do in our in my mandingo smoothie
in the e function smoothie recipe book but what we're finding is that there's so much benefit
to maca root it even has been shown to have anti-depressive qualities so you might ask
yourself how can all of these things be happening well when they studied maca root what they found
is in the brain of the mice that they studied besides the humans that they studied they didn't
want to look at the brain tissue of humans is that there seems to be a boost in norepinephrine and
dopamine the passion hormone and hormones that are important to help you feel balanced and vibrant
so what they found in the mice tissue mouse tissue is that there was an improvement and an increase
in both of those things so maca root not only can help modulate all of these different things
but it also can help improve mood now you know if you stay together with someone long enough you're
going to have a bit of a mood impairment you're going to have a decrease in dopamine just because
the anticipation is gone so now the two of you can actually use some of the smoothie recipes
drop some maca root powder right into some of the smoothie recipes of course speak to your
physician before you do anything like that but isn't it great to know that we can let
plant-based medicine heal us when it doesn't necessarily always have to be about the pill
all right i'm dr rachel and this is what we do here as i help you discover and uncover
healthy alternatives to the mainstream so of course i've dropped the link to my
e-function smoothie recipe book below so get your copy today and i'll see you next time