Muira Puama: A Safe and Natural Viagra?Muira puama (pronounced mo-ra poo-AH-ma), also called “potency wood,” comes from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. Its bark and roots have been used as aphrodisiacs for hundreds of years. Out of all the herbs you’ll ever hear about touted as having sex stimulant qualities, this one just might be the best of all. Natives along the Brazilian Amazon’s Rio Negro use the stems and roots from young plants as a tonic to treat neuromuscular problems. It’s also used as a preventive for baldness. In Brazilian herbal medicine, it is a prized sexual stimulant. Traditionally used for impotence, poor sexual performance or diminished vitality, Muira puama was revered by British explorers who saw it’s effectiveness and brought it to England. It can be found listed in the British Herbal Pharmacopoeia (1983) listed as an aphrodisiac, and suggested for impotence. Muira puama has been reported in two published clinical studies conducted by Dr. Jacques Waynberg, an eminent medical sexologist and author of 10 books. The first study, conducted at the Institute of Sexology in Paris under Waynberg's supervision, was reported in the November 1994 issue of The American Journal of Natural Medicine. The study involved 262 men declaring they lacked sexual desire, or inability to get or keep an erection. In short, they said they were impotent. After two weeks, at a daily dose of 1 to 1.5 grams of the extract, 62 percent of them rated the treatment as having a dynamic effect. And 52 percent of the patients rated the treatment as beneficial. The article went on to compare muira puama to yohimbine, stating, "Muira puama may provide better results than yohimbine without side effects." In fact, other clinical research shows muira puama to be more effective than the prescription drug yohimbine hydrochloride for impotence. While this remarkable herb seems to be a natural Viagra, keep in mind that current research says muira puama isn’t effective if taken in capsule form. The active parts responsible for muira puama’s wonders are not soluble in water or broken down by the stomach, so taking bark or root powder in a capsule or tablet form will most likely not work. You need to take it as a carefully prepared tincture in alcohol, or actually obtain the bark and boil it for 20 minutes in alcohol. Also note that some men report increased vitality within two weeks, while the full effects build over several weeks.
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