As a physician involved in researching the medicinal properties of the Mangosteen, I receive many impressive reports of personal experience with the fruit from consumers. Since I feel that third party recounting of such personal experience is somewhat inappropriate, I will not make specific references to individual cases but will briefly recount how one unusual group of consumers have generated the submission of some amazing reports. A few of these reports were, I must admit, a surprise even to me.

A significant number of patients who cannot feed themselves or be fed orally have now experienced benefits from receiving the Mangosteen juice through tube feedings delivered through the body wall directly into their stomachs. These individuals have been afflicted with the following conditions: advanced dementia, paralysis, blindness and an extremely low level of responsiveness following infectious encephalitis (inflammation of the substance of the brain), stroke with resulting partial paralysis and cerebral palsy. These consumers have derived benefit from as little as four ounces of the juice per day although others have received considerably more. Inevitably, the reports of benefit have come from their loved ones and caregivers. Obviously, these consumers have been under close supervision and, in many cases, under the constant daily care of physicians and other healthcare workers. For the most part, none of the medical professionals involved in their care expected improvement from any intervention whatsoever as they had already tried everything in their power to help their patients.

Therefore, imagine, if you will, the surprise (not to say the shock) of these professionals when they have witnessed unexpected improvements in their patients. I have communicated with several of them who are, because of what they have observed, very interested in the fruit’s restorative powers.

Unfortunately, because Mangosteen research is still in its infancy, I often can do no more than suggest theoretical explanations for the observed benefits. For these professionals, such a lack of precision is undesirable but as one of the doctors involved said: “We have many drugs which produce effects that we cannot explain either, so I’m not terribly concerned that the science behind this fruit cannot explain all its medicinal benefits.”

This process of catching the interest of medical professionals by exposing them to the fruit’s effects in their patients certainly seems, to me at least, to be the best means of introducing the Mangosteen to such people. Attempting to cut through the professional skepticism and bias against botanicals which is characteristic of most physicians when someone lobbies them about the Mangosteen’s advantages without some patient evidence which they can observe, is too often an exercise in futility that closes more doors than it opens. Even though some doctors remain skeptical in the face of remarkable patient improvement with the Mangosteen, most are prepared to open their minds when the results are obvious.

These particular results, obtained in a group of consumers where placebo effect, by definition, is virtually excluded, are impressive because of that fact. The emotional impact upon loved ones and caregivers when beneficial change occurs in these patients, where no change was predicted by the medical authorities involved, is also more poignant than in less extreme circumstances. As I reflect upon these unforeseen benefits, I am prompted to repeat something I wrote more than two years ago, “You will be amazed at all the benefits you will experience from using the Mangosteen.” Why someone might emerge from the shadowy depths of a semi-coma or regain their lost sight and movement when Mangosteen is used is still speculative and coincidence always remain a possibility, however, the joy experienced from the return of a loved one from a living death clearly eclipses any scientific debate over the ‘how or the why’ of what has happened.

I have written these few words because I feel that you might derive some of the same sense of wonderment and awe that I regularly experience as I learn about the results this fruit can bring about in scenarios where medical science comes up short. Does this mean that everyone in circumstances similar to the cases I hear about will benefit from the mangosteen? Definitely not, but I am reminded of the old story about the fellow walking along a beach one morning after a ferocious storm had cast thousands of starfish upon the beach to perish. He was throwing some of the starfish back into the sea when a skeptic happened by and said, “You will never be able to make a meaningful difference because there are thousands of them that will die this morning in the sun.” Calmly continuing his efforts, he flung one more starfish out into the surf and replied, “Well, it will make a big difference for that one, won’t it?”