06-11-2011, 11:13 AM
Good morning Susan and Marcy,
Maca and hops are a great combo. Just don't use the two at the same time in the day. I have maca in the morning to wake me up. Hops helps me sleep in the evening.
Hops made me almost depressed after three weeks of using it alone. Susan got me to try maca, and it turned out to be the perfect mood upper I needed to use with the hops. I use mood and libido to get the balance between maca and hops right.
Maca acts like it increases DHEA. DHEA becomes testosterone. Testosterone can become DHT or estrogens. Some maca users break out on the DHT. But the xanthohumol in the hops is an anti-androgen. It blocks 5α-reductase, the enzyme that makes DHT from testosterone. Then all the testosterone is made into estrogens by another enzyme, aromatase. So maca amplifies the estrogens increase from hops, and hops prevents the breakouts from maca. Great combo.
Because hops digests to estradiol, and maca increases estradiol too, the two together can trigger estrogen dominance. I never got headaches, but I got insomnia once, after I decreased fenugreek and increased maca. So I take care to use enough fenugreek: it increases progesterone. The progesterone keeps the balance with the estrogens. I never get estrogen dominance as long as I take enough fenugreek.
Maca and hops are a great combo. Just don't use the two at the same time in the day. I have maca in the morning to wake me up. Hops helps me sleep in the evening.
Hops made me almost depressed after three weeks of using it alone. Susan got me to try maca, and it turned out to be the perfect mood upper I needed to use with the hops. I use mood and libido to get the balance between maca and hops right.
Maca acts like it increases DHEA. DHEA becomes testosterone. Testosterone can become DHT or estrogens. Some maca users break out on the DHT. But the xanthohumol in the hops is an anti-androgen. It blocks 5α-reductase, the enzyme that makes DHT from testosterone. Then all the testosterone is made into estrogens by another enzyme, aromatase. So maca amplifies the estrogens increase from hops, and hops prevents the breakouts from maca. Great combo.
Because hops digests to estradiol, and maca increases estradiol too, the two together can trigger estrogen dominance. I never got headaches, but I got insomnia once, after I decreased fenugreek and increased maca. So I take care to use enough fenugreek: it increases progesterone. The progesterone keeps the balance with the estrogens. I never get estrogen dominance as long as I take enough fenugreek.