Próba zastosowania Maca (Lepidium peruvianum) u kobiet w okresie wczesnej postmenopauzy

Henry Ostrowski-Meissner¹, Witold Kapczyński², Alina Mścisz³, Jerzy Lutomski³

Summary
Maca (Lepidium Peruvianum) is an annual herb derived from a cruciferous root wegetable, which grows at 4000-4500m above sea level in the high Andean plateaus of Peru. From clinical observations made by medical doctors practicing in number of clinics and hospitals in the USA, it appears that Maca, used as non-hormonal therapeutic preparation, stimulates the body to produce its own hormones, thus providing an alternative help in treating hormonal dysfunctions in menopausal women more adequately than supplying them with hormones from an outside source as is the case in hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Therefore, an attempt has been made to observe the effect of maca in alleviation symptoms of menopausal discomfort on a selected group of 20 postmenopausal women. Clinical observations were conducted under gynaecologist´s instructions with women exposed for one month period to placebo, followed by two month of taking encapsulated powder from Maca root which previously was subjected to proprietary treatment (application of pressure and moisture) which increased its density and allowed pre-gelatinisation of the powder, thus making it easier to digest (Maca-G). Maca-G and placebo, which were administered in the from of 500 mg hard gel capsules, were taken twice daily (2 in the morning and 2 in the evening). With start and at the end of each phase of treatment, all woman answered a set of standard questionnaire according to Greene´s as well were tested for four hormones: LH, FSH, Oestrogens and Progesterone.
In comparison to placebo, after 60 days using Maca capsules, levels of both gonadotropins FSH and LH substantially increased (27% SE ? 2.5 and 21% SE ? 2.3 respectively), with the ratio between these two hormones maintaned at the level between 2.2-2.3 which is typical to one observed in early menopausal stage (> 1.1). On the other hand, levels of Oestrogen and Progesterone decreased slightly below the pre-trial period (45% SE ? 5.4 and 3% SE ? 2.6 respectively). In personal subjective interviews conducted by a gynaecologist after two months of using Maca supplement, majority of women (7 of 13 which concluded the three month trial) observed reduction in feeling discomfort typical to observed in the early postmenopausal stage. According to responses given in 20 questions Greene´s questionnaire, only some tendencies confirmed the above, while majority of subjective responses of were inconclusive due to a strong placebo effect. Obtained results may suggests that Maca is acting as a toner of hormonal processes which may alleviate discomfort felt by women during early postmenopausal stage. This preliminary observations justify further clinical study on use of maca in postmenopausal women to assess effectiveness of Maca as a non-hormonal therapeutic treatment, which may help women to reduce discomfort associated with menopause as an alternative to HRT programs.

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