The Benefits of Red Maca

Red maca is a root vegetable grown in the Peruvian Andes. Nicknamed the “Peruvian Ginseng,” it was sacred to the Incas and has been used as a food and medicinal herb in South America for over 2,000 years.  Maca is loaded with a high amount of plant-based nutrients, including amino acids, desirable fatty acids, fiber, calcium, magnesium, and more – causing nutrition gurus such as David Wolfe (video) to count it as one of his go to “super foods.” 

Maca is well known for its ability to help enhance strength and endurance, and is high in anti-oxidants. Other benefits include:

  • Endocrine/Hormone Balance
  • Enhances both male and female fertility/sexual function
  • Increased Prostate Health
  • Increased Energy Levels
  • PMS/Menopause Relief
  • Anti-cancer/Anti-tumor properties
  • Increased Bone Density

Maca works because it is an adaptogen, which facilitates your body’s ability to balance overall hormonal health. It is also a rich source of sterols — steroid-like compounds found in both plants and animals that promote quick regeneration of fatigued muscle tissue and respond to stress. Maca, in a variety of colors, can be found in most health food stores in liquid, capsule, or powder form.  All forms and colors are good, but pay attention to sourcing: buy from a quality harvester that ensures its 100% pure maca root powder and ideally look for a variety that is raw and organic.

While there are no real side effects listed for maca, there may be  interaction with certain medicines, such as those for hormone treatment or blood pressure, and estrogen like effects on certain cancers. Readers are advised to research and consult with a physician before adding maca to their diet.

 

Photo Image: Wikipedia.org


A Setting for Kindly Spirits by Barbara Weisberg

| by Barbara Weisberg

Author Barbara Weisberg writes about the quaint Victorian town of Lily Dale — home to a myriad of Spiritualists and psychics in upstate New York. “For anyone interested in mediumship, Lily Dale, New York, is an important place on the spiritual and geographic map. A Victorian village located on a scenic lake near Buffalo, Lily Dale was founded in the late 19th century as a summer retreat for Spiritualists who wished to share time with those of common mind in a peaceful and meditative setting, one where they could live, socialize, study, consult mediums and practice mediumship.”

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Merlian News August 2020 Newsletter

Missed an article? Here’s a quick round up of some of our favorites from this month! As always, we look forward to presenting you with up to date news and information about holistic events, health and well being from both the scientific and the spiritual perspectives, nutrition, vegan lifestyles, and more.

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Letters to a Dead Friend about Zen by Brad Warner

The night that bestselling author and Zen teacher Brad Warner learned that his childhood friend Marky had died of cancer at the age of forty-eight, he had just arrived in Hamburg, Germany where he was scheduled to give a talk to a group of Zen students. It was the last thing he felt like doing. Instead, Warner was thinking about all of the things he never said to his friend, since topics like spirituality and meditation didn’t exactly fit with the passion for punk rock they had shared since they were young.

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Whole Grains: Millet by Karen Railey

| by Karen Railey

Millet is one of the oldest foods known to humans and possibly the first cereal grain to be used for domestic purposes. It is mentioned in the Bible, and was used during those times to make bread. Millet has been used in Africa and India as a staple food for thousands of years and it was grown as early as 2700 BC in China where it was the prevalent grain before rice became the dominant staple. It is documented that the plant was also grown by the lake dwellers of Switzerland during the Stone Age.

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Are We There Yet?

| by Cheryl Shainmark

Ok, I have to say it: I’ve about had it with this whole pandemic thing. This week will mark five months since we went into lock down, and, for me at least, this whole “hunkering down” zeitgeist is getting old. Lately, it seems the extended sleep-over, roughing it at camp, take one for the team mood has gotten depressing. I miss the early lock down days, when we could distract ourselves with laying in dried beans, hoarding toilet paper, or judging our colleague’s home work space on Zoom conferences. Even the threat of murder hornets provided a good laugh, in a what next? sort of way.

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The Saturn-Saturn Cycle: Life in Three Acts (Part Two) by Bill Herbst

Act Two is from 29 through 57. That’s Mid-Life, the three-decade period of our greatest productivity in the beehive. That’s when we’ve learned about our bodies, accounted for our social conditions, absorbed the rules as given to us by others, but also discovered our own rules for how we work and how the world works. It’s when we’re operating at full productive capacity, when we make our mark with families and careers of our own, when we see how our lives will unfold before our eyes. What did we dream about as children? Can we make that real? Act Two is when we find out by trying to do so.

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