Maca, also known as Lepidium Meyenii, has become famous as a superfood, but is even more famous for its acclaimed ability to increase male fertility and sexual desire. In the Andes of Peru, where maca is grown, it is generally accepted among the local people that maca has sexual enhancing effects. There are even stories going back 1000's of years of Incan warriors taking maca before warring to give them more strength and power for battle. The sexual 'side effects' of maca upon Incan warriors in these old stories were not pleasant for the women of conquered tribes, even if indicative of 'maca's sexual enhancing power'. I still find it a little disturbing that such awful stories are pulled out of the bag to advertise maca products, especially when there is real science behind maca. Moving on!
Maca and Fertility
There have been many studies upon the effects of maca upon sperm levels of male rats, all of which have increased sperm count in the testes of rats. As for human males, there has been one study of this nature.
A study conducted by the Department of Physiological Sciences, Lima Peru provided evidence of maca's fertility enhancing properties. Nine adult men aged 22-44 were given daily doses of maca tablets; some were given 1500mg, and the others 3000mg over a period of 4 months. Several sperm based tests were made before the experiment and then again at 4 months. All nine men had shown improvements in sperm count, the amount of sperm produced during ejaculation and also in sperm motility. Sperm motility is how well a sperm can swim towards the female egg and is considered equally important in fertility as sperm count. What good is millions of sperm that cant find their way?! It was also noted that the men given the higher dose of maca did not have greater improvements than those given the lower dosage, although the reason why is yet to be explained.
For more information about maca visit introduction of the maca root