← The FormularyDrive & vitalityMaca
Also known as Lepidium meyenii, Peruvian ginsengA root with centuries of use and modest, honest evidence.
The evidence is real but modest, and the marketing around it is not. Anyone selling maca as an instant anything is selling something else. Taken daily it is a reasonable, cheap, well-tolerated addition to a routine — which is the most that should be claimed for it.
A root vegetable grown at altitude in the Peruvian Andes, dried and milled. It comes in colours — black, red and yellow — which are the same species grown from different roots.
Not well established. Maca contains macamides and glucosinolates and does not act on testosterone in the trials that have looked. Whatever it does, it does not do it hormonally — which is a point in its favour, not against it.
Traditionally used to support libido and reproductive wellness. It is an adaptogen in the loose sense: taken daily, over weeks, for a general effect rather than an acute one.
Anyone treating libido as a routine rather than an occasion.
Two capsules daily with a meal. Cumulative over weeks. Skipping days is what stops it working.
Nothing on the first night, or the third. Judge it at a month, or do not bother judging it.
Read the colour. Black, red and yellow maca are studied separately and inconsistently, and most products do not say which they used. ROOT uses all three.
Read the labelNot an erection product, not a testosterone treatment and not a fertility treatment. Speak to a doctor first with a thyroid or hormone-sensitive condition.
Evidence grades describe how well an ingredient is studied — A well-supported, C emerging — not a promise of results. Educational, not medical advice. Doses are typical ranges; follow the label on the product.