EP.324/ Maca can help with fatigue, burnout and hormonal imbalances - but is it okay for endo?
Today I want to shine a spotlight on maca, a herb you’ve probably heard lots about in the wellness space, but for those of us with endo, it can be confusing to know if it’s helpful or whether we should avoid it.
Because maca can help us handle stress and burnout, I thought this busy time of year is a perfect opportunity to talk about it!
Maca is an adaptogen herb, which means it helps our bodies to adapt to physical and emotional stressors. Maca does this by acting on the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis (HPA axis) to promote a more normalised stress response.
The HPA axis is a system between our brain and adrenal glands that controls our stress response and our cortisol and adrenaline output. If you want to learn more about the HPA axis, I’ve linked to an episode in the show notes.
Maca prevents the overstimulation of the HPA axis, which stops cortisol levels from getting excessively high, but because maca supports the HPA axis to function optimally, if you’re struggling with low levels (which is a problem in the endo community) in theory, it can raise them to normal, healthy levels that help you to deal with stress. Now it’s worth mentioning here that most of the studies do not focus on raising low levels of cortisol because they’ve always concentrated on high levels, but they do show an improved stress response and resilience and modulation of cortisol, so based on how it works, as I said, in theory, it could raise levels in people with low amounts.
This in turn can also help raise your energy levels across the day as cortisol is your waking hormone, not just your stress hormone. It rises in the morning to help you wake up and is what keeps us feeling productive, energised and motivated. When levels are low, it can contribute significantly to fatigue, and I’ve covered this in more detail in that episode I just shared with you. In fact, maca been shown to reduce fatigue levels and improve energy, as well as support a healthy stress response.
Maca can also aid with stress by replenishing nutrients that get depleted during stressful periods and are essential for energy production, like magnesium and vitamin C.
The bonus is that the effects of maca on the HPA axis have a positive downstream effect on your sex hormones, because when stress goes up, your sex hormones pay the price.
This is because of the hypothalamic pituitary ovarian axis (HPO), which is in short, a communication pathway between your HPA axis and your ovaries. Basically, your stress response is one of the most important functions in your body. It keeps us alive by alerting us to danger and driving energy to the organs and muscles we need to fight or run.
But this stress response is also connected to your ovaries by the HPO. Your sex hormones become just ‘nice to have’ in a stressful situation, they’re not essential, and so your body drives resources away from the ovaries in order to conserve energy, nutrients, etc. for surviving. Additionally, your body very sensibly believes that stress is not a safe time to conceive, so it lowers your sex hormone output and ovarian function. Finally, cortisol can actually block the effects of progesterone, because it locks into progesterone receptors.
Maca improves hormonal balance by supporting the HPA and HPO axes, and as a result, maca has demonstrated improvements in sex hormones in studies on humans and animals. What’s great about maca is that it isn’t a phytoestrogen so it’s not mimicking the affects of oestrogen, instead, it’s helping your body to work optimally and therefore to make the right amount of hormones for you, whatever your particular struggles or imbalances are.
There are other ways maca can help our hormones too - it’s rich in minerals and nutrients required for healthy ovarian function and hormone production such as calcium, zinc and B vitamins.
Finally, various studies have shown maca particularly shines in perimenopause and menopause (although researchers believe it can support sex hormones at all stages of our menstrual life). It’s demonstrated improvements in hot flashes, night sweats, mood, libido, sleep problems, cognitive function and energy.
So is it okay for endo?
Maca is not a phytoestrogen, it contains no plant compounds that mimic oestrogen, so if you’re sensitive to those and find they worsen your endo symptoms, that’s not an issue with maca (although in theory, phytoestrogens can be helpful, but it’s very individual - I’ve linked to a couple of episodes on the topic in the show notes).
As I mentioned earlier, maca’s supports our endocrine system to work optimally, which means that the body can make normal and sufficient amounts of sex hormones. It shouldn’t cause oestrogen to skyrocket because it’s not directly increasing our sex hormones, just helping our body to work properly to make normal levels.
However, everyone is different and it is hormone modulating, and so if you feel like you are more oestrogenic from maca - sore boobs, water retention, more PMS, more cramping, heavier bleeding, etc., then it may not be right for you, or you may need a lower dose. But if you’re reading sources online that say “maca raises oestrogen”, it’s not because it directly increases oestrogen or mimics oestrogen, it’s because it’s supporting your body to make it, so I hope that clears things up!
Now, when it comes to taking maca, we do want to exercise caution. Maca is stimulating, so jumping in at a teaspoon is probably not a good idea because you might end up feeling very wired. Whilst taking something stimulating sounds like a good idea when you’re stressed or tired or burnt out, it actually stresses the system more - so we want to take a softly, softly approach.
In my training, we’re recommended using 2g a day, which is about a third of a tsp. It’s always, always better to build up low and slow with maca and adaptogens, so starting with 0.5mg, then 1g, then 1.5g and so on, but only move onto the next stage when you feel like you’re well adjusted. You may find you don’t even need to go that high because you feel good where you are. I personally use about 1g a day, and that feels good to me without being too stimulating. However, some doctors and practitioners recommend building up to 5g a day, like Dr Jolene Brighten.
Ideally, work with a herbalist to find a dose that suits you, and consult your doctor before bringing in any new herbs or supplements.
And lastly, maca is best absorbed when it is in a gelatinized form, so make sure you opt for a supplement that offers this. I have linked to one or two recommendations in the show notes, but they are not sponsored or affiliate links.
I have a maca malted milk recipe that you can try! The link is in the show notes.
Shownotes
Maca adaptogenic properties
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10910417/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3991026/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614567/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614644/
Maca and energy/fatigue
https://www.ffhdj.com/index.php/ffhd/article/view/912
https://ffhdj.com/index.php/ffhd/article/view/912/1603
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212429222003364
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2017/2904951
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0141813017351681
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2024.1360422/full
Maca and hormones
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405654524001483
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09513590.2024.2360085
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614604/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6419242/#bibr89-2515690X19829380
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614596/#R5
https://vuir.vu.edu.au/33971/
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1155/2015/949036
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236909766_Hormone-Balancing_Effect_of_Pre-Gelatinized_Organic_Maca_Lepidium_peruvianum_Chacon_III_Clinical_Responses_of_Early-Postmenopausal_Women_to_Maca_in_Double_Blind_Randomized_Placebo-controlled_crossover
https://journals.ekb.eg/article_79449_fda1706194d865cd287c03d88ef02905.pdf
http://eplant.njau.edu.cn/maca/publication/47.pdf
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/rmb2.12357
Maca isn’t a phytoestrogen
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614604/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3614596/#R5
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/is-flax-bad-for-endo?rq=flax
Endo and cortisol
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253890701840610
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/podcast/tired-all-the-time-hpa-axis-dysfunction-and-endo?rq=HPA%20axis
Maca brands (not sponsored/affiliated)
https://supplementhub.com/en-gb/products/maca-powder-gelatinized-227g-gaia-herbs
Recipe
https://www.theendobellycoach.com/burnout-busting-luteal-phase-malted-milk
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Produced by Chris Robson