Strange reactions to maca

[Bri'sgirl]

I was just curious if anyone has had any strange reactions to taking maca? The first day I took it, I seemed fine. The second day I took it, I had a weird reaction kind of like a niacin flush, but only on my face. It was about 5-10 minutes after I took it and it lasted for about an hour. I mixed it with an Emergen-C and took it on an empty stomach (maybe that's why?) Today is my third day and I just took it about 4 minutes ago. I feel like my face is starting to get that hot feeling again. I also feel sort of jittery. I really want to be able to take this, but I don't want to have this happen every time. Could it be an allergic reaction? I'm only taking about 1/8 tsp each time.

Just a note: I do tend to be very sensitive to supplements. Vitamins make me throw up and I can only take 1/2 doses of pain meds and such.

[HulaJenn]

I found the same sort of reaction when I took it - almost like drinking too much coffee? i found taking less of it and spacing it out during the day instead of all at once, and making sure I took it with food helped.

[Bri'sgirl]

Jenn, thank you. Yes, it was sort of like drinking too much coffee, plus a super red face that looked like I was sunburnt. I made sure to eat today and it helped a lot, but still felt a little jittery.

How much maca did you take at a time and per day? I'm taking 1/8 tsp in the morning only and nothing the rest of the day.

[HulaJenn]

I was taking capsules. They were 500mg ones and instead of taking all 3 in the morning I would take 2 with breakfast and 1 with lunch. (the suggested amount was 1500 mgs) I found i got headaches with that much so I reduced it to 1 with breakfast and 1 with lunch.

[MaerynPearl]

I got headaches from it for the first several days.

[Bri'sgirl]

Ok, I didn't associate the headaches I've had with the maca, but it makes sense. I don't usually get headaches, but I have for the past couple of days.

After doing the math, I think I'm taking about 315 mg per day, which doesn't seem so much compared to the 1500mg that Jenn is taking.

It sounds like it's not totally unusual to have some sort of reaction when first starting the maca, so I'll keep taking it and see what happens.

Thanks, Ladies!