number of important human health markers – while it’s slowly gaining popularity at the moment, these results suggest it’s worthy of almost cult food status! An interesting question that arises from these results is whether maca’s beneficial effects on glucose tolerance are causing the improvements in the other parameters, whether all improvements are independent of one another, or whether the improved glucose tolerance is a result of another variable changing i.e. is improved liver health meaning glucose is being utilised more effectively? It’s clear that more studies are needed to address these questions. Also, an incredibly important question is whether the benefits of maca root on these health parameters will continue if you stop taking maca, or is maca just correcting health problems in a very quick time span? Many people take maca at around 3 teaspoons per day for a few months to resolve their health problems and then feel they only need to take it occasionally to feel thebenefits of maca root – this suggests to me maca is capable of making long lasting improvements. Maca root for arthritis: Maca is a traditional Peruvian remedy for arthritis and joint problems. This is one potential benefits of maca root supplementation that has hardly received any attention from modern researchers at all, but, if true, then maca could help a whole lot of sportsmen and bodybuilders out there. To date, there has only been one study performed on maca to examine this claim, this being done in test tubes on human cartilage – findings were that benefits of maca root were increased NO (nitric oxide) levels in the cartilage. (NO is thought to naturally increase circulation and to decrease inflammation.) I don’t normally pay much attention to studies performed in test tubes as there’s no guarantee at all that the results will translate to real life; however, when you hear of the benefits of maca root as a traditional remedy for arthritis, and it shows positive results in this
