The Wonder of Mangosteen

Mangosteen. I have been eating this fruit all my life and look forward to each season. Little did I know that this little fruit have so many natural remedies. From young I had always liked the unique colour of its skin, purple. Like the saying, do not judge a book by its cover, wallah! when you open it up, it shows off a clean white, soft, flesh with its ohh-so-sweet taste! Dark and uninviting on the outside and yummy on the inside!

Well, mangosteen is always in season together with the King of fruits, my other favourite, the Durian! Asians belief is that, the mangosteen with its cooling properties, is the yin of the yang. A fruit that balance the heatiness of the Durian. So, whenever I buy durian, it will always be accompanied with the mangosteen!

Photo courtesy of Rigmarole

Yep! Garcinia Mangostana, the scientific name for mangosteen which I have never heard before until a friend introduced me to his MLM related product. It was touted to have helped people to cure ailments such as gout, eczema, hypertension, diabetes, migraine,viral infections and the list go on and on...... In other words, another new health supplement in the market!

Incredible list of remedies coming from an obscure tropical fruit! Naturally, I am not one to be taken in easily with such incredible claim! One fruit with such wide ranging remedies which medical science having difficulties to overcome! My thoughts were, if this fruit really works such wonder, then there is no need for doctors anymore!
Curious, I scoured the internet to find some, if any, medical research that has anything to do with mangosteen.

Well, there are lots of sites with regards to mangosteen. Both for and against. I found that in medical history, Asians have been using the rind of the mangosteen fruit as a remedy for inflammatory and septic ailments, eg. eczema. The skin of the mangosteen fruit, which I would usually just throw away, actually has medicinal properties! I realized the greatness of God in providing us humans with such simple fruit that has such medicinal properties. Its something which we have taken for granted!

Studies have been carried out in laboratories on the effect of Xanthones found in the mangosteen. This fruit has quite a number of Xanthones that showed encouraging results from research for anti-cancer lead compounds and breast cancer cells (just to name a few). Although more scientific research have yet to be done on the actual effect of mangosteen on such serious illnesses, for now I have only testimonials from people who have taken the mangosteen juice.

Well I guess if mangosteen is a cure all remedy, then medical science can be considered as redundant....

References to laboratory findings on mangosteen can be found at PubMed.

NOTE: PubMed, however, is not in any way endorsing mangosteen juice as an alternative medicine. What is found on the website are laboratory findings from different researchers.

My friend who introduced me to this mangosteen juice have given me his own testimonials one after another.

1. His father, a diabetic, loved the juice and had been taking it regularly. For about 2 months after, his results showed tremendous improvement in his sugar level reading!

2. His aunty upon returning from India, had very bad headache, Upon visiting a family GP, it was found her BP reading was 250/120! The GP suggested for her to be admitted considering her state. My friend had suggested to his cousin the mangosteen juice. 3 days later, another visit to the GP showed her reading had gone down drastically! His aunty now is a regular mangosteen juice 'addict'!

3. His cousin who is working in a local hospital, had assisted a cancer patient who had just undergone surgery. He had suggested to take the mangosteen juice after the surgery. The patient took to mangosteen juice and now, the doctors treating him found that his recovery was much faster than normal patients.

4. An aunty, who once had a North Indian stall at our workplace, had bad arthritis on her right hands. For years she was not able to bend her fingers without experiencing pain. My friend suggested for her to try the mangosteen juice. A week later when we met up with her, she told us how her hand can now function like before without any pain!

Great! Now with so much testimonials, how can I not be inclined to give the wonderful juice a try?

My wife have been a diabetic since our second child, which was 9 years ago. Having diabetes which is not well controlled have been taking a toll on her and myself. Whenever she have to be admitted in order to bring her sugar level down, I started to come up with a title, 'Checking-in her favorite resort' for a few days.

Desperate to find alternative medicine, since its painful for me to see her jabbing herself everyday, I finally decided to give this mangosteen juice a try. Already into the 3rd bottle, I've yet to see any favorable outcome from taking the mangosteen juice.

However, as they say, don't expect miracles to happen in such a short time. I still ask her to continue taking the juice.

Well, since I am paying so much for this Mangosteen juice, might as well have a go! I tried taking it as suggested by my friend, 1oz each time, 3 times daily. Guess what happened?

1. The very next day I experienced diarrhea in the early morning! I went to the toilet 5 times within 3 hours! Guess it's the antioxidant detox effect on me. But other than this, I felt fine!

2. A pain in my lower right gums I had been nursing for a few weeks had slowly subside. Now its almost like I never had the gum problem! (I gargled the drink every time I took it.)

3. About a week after taking the mangosteen juice, a bad backache which I had been experiencing lately had slowly gone away!

4. My urination problem which I had for quite a while, the feeling that I had not relieved myself fully, had also disappeared!

Believe it or not, these are what I had experienced for myself!

For my kids, my son loved the juice! He'd been asking for it everyday!
My daughter dont really like it. But I made her drink an ounce of it daily anyway. Now, I just realized her forehead, which used to have quite a bit of pimples, have now cleared! (Not sure though if it is due to the mangosteen juice or the facial wash my wife made her use daily.)

What I have written above is solely based on my own personal experience and findings. The juice had no favorable effect as yet for my wife, but I have personally experienced those small effects for myself.

If it really works for my wife, I am considering to introduce this to my dad, who had a heart bypass last year and now having difficulty in balancing his blood count. And also my mom, who is also a diabetic.

Skeptics would say that this is just a marketing ploy of an MLM distributor. Trying ways and means to sell the over inflated priced of mangosteen juice. Well, it's up to individual's preferences. If you are comfortable with what you already have, then so be it, have it your way.

I shared what I have personally experienced from taking the mangosteen juice. Like the saying I always hold on to, "Do not discount what is not known to the world, it may lead you to a world of wonders!" That goes the same to mangosteen juice!