Forever Good Nutrition

Millennium Health Supplements (Canada) Inc., the largest exporter of hoodia gordonii in the world, reports that the harvesting of wild hoodia has come to an end and the only hoodia gordonii coming onto the market currently is cultivated, or farmed. While many felt that cultivated hoodia could take the place of wild harvested hoodia, testers are finding out now that cultivated hoodia gordonii has a much reduced level of active ingredient in it, leaving it pretty much inert or useless.
Active levels of steroidal glycosides are directly related to the age of the plant. Farmers in South Africa are harvesting cultivated hoodia crops in the first 2 - 3 years to fill the supply gap with the wild harvesting of hoodia now shut down. The problem is that the plants have little or no active levels in them and they won’t have until they reach maturity at about 5 - 6 years minimum. Wild harvested hoodia gordonii has an active level of steroidal glycosides at 0.34 - 0.35%. Cultivated hoodia now coming onto the market has an active level of about 0.1% or less.
All of the import/export problems, rigid controls instituted by CITES and manipulated by the South African agencies and tonnes upon tonnes of adulterated or inferior cultivated crops coming onto the market have also hurt the industry.
Jen Cully, President of Millennium Health states that, “We believe that hoodia gordonii has hit it’s apex in the industry until cultivated crops can be left in the ground long enough to mature and that is going to take a few more years before we start to see hoodia gordonii with any acceptable levels of active in it. In the meantime, other products are set to take over the industry leaving hoodia to find a lesser place in the market perhaps as an additive,” Cully says.
“Millennium Health still has hoodia gordonii in stock that has high active levels of 0.35% and we will continue to supply until that stock is gone, which won’t take long,” says Cully. “We are now in the process of changing over to the newest all-natural appetite suppressing product, Caralluma Fimbriata, that is by far superior to hoodia gordonii,” she claims.
“We started conducting in-house testing with Caralluma Fimbriata pure powder, 5:1 and 10:1 extract a few months ago. The results are shocking and we are ecstatic to find that Caralluma is not only a superior product in comparison, but that there have been efficacy and double blind studies conducted in the United States and India that prove Caralluma is undoubtedly more effective and safer than other appetite suppressing products. Hoodia gordonii has no research behind it and we are too many years away from seeing any.”
Cully says, “Our results showed that Caralluma Fimbriata works faster and better than hoodia gordonii. We used 2 different groups in our testing, one group that hoodia worked well on and one group that hoodia only worked on marginally or not at all. With the participants that hoodia worked on, caralluma worked faster. On participants that hoodia never did work on, Caralluma worked on all of them with both groups reporting that they felt Caralluma was much stronger. Both of those groups are losing weight at the same pace as the entire group on average of 4 - 6 lbs per week.”
“The benefits of using Caralluma over hoodia are many,” says Cully, “and our customers are already in the process of changing over to Caralluma. Millennium has been bombarded with requests for samples, quotations and some orders over the last few weeks. There are no export issues as Caralluma Fimbriata has been around for a very long time and has been cultivated for many years so we don’t have any supply issues either. The cost of Caralluma is well below that of hoodia, which is greatly inflated because of supply and quality issues. And of course the most important issue are the studies and research behind Caralluma Fimbriata that are none-existent with hoodia.” Millennium Health Supplements
CONTACT: Lisa Taylor of Millennium Health Supplements (Canada) Inc.,
lisa@millennium-health.com, Toll Free Canada and USA, 1-800-416-3147,
+1-905-576-4000, or fax, +1-905-576-1669
Web site: http://www.millennium-health.com/

©
Copyright 2007 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.

Safety, Effectiveness of Dietary Supplements Focus of Major Conference

$4 billion a year spent on herbal products for better health, memory, sex

	Watch Video
	Flash video about botanicals featuring David Pasco, who has studied many medicinal plants. Click to video.

April 25, 2007 – Senior citizens, probably the most ardent seekers of better health, are among the Americans that consume more than $4 billion worth of St. John’s wort, echinacea, Ginkgo biloba and other herbal products each year in hopes of improving their health, memory and even their sex lives. A major conference opens next week at the University of Mississippi to explore the latest studies on the safety and quality of botanical dietary supplements.

The 6th Oxford International Conference on the Science of Botanicals brings together nearly 150 scientists, regulatory officials and industry representatives from around the world to discuss the latest studies.

Hosted by the National Center for Natural Products Research, a unit of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, in conjunction with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and groups in China and India, the annual gathering is recognized as one of the nation’s most important scientific forums on the herbal products industry.

The NCNPR has set a priority for researchers of establishing global quality and safety standards for materials used in the multibillion-dollar herbal industry.

In this country, herbal products, or dietary supplements, are “not as tightly regulated as prescription drugs, so there is less assurance regarding their safety and their quality,” said NCNPR Director Larry Walker.

Supplements are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. If the FDA decides a product is mislabeled, adulterated or a health hazard, the agency can remove it from the market. But such violations are difficult to catch without industry standards and scientific methods to undergird research supporting these regulatory decisions.

Hammering home that point, Walker asks: “How do you determine that labels are accurate? Is a certain chemical constituent in a supplement a normal one or a contaminant? What methods are available to test these? If a natural constituent is thought to be harmful, how do you confirm it? If a certain constituent is harmful, what limits should be set for it?”

Answers to many of these questions require “developing new research methods, identifying new constituents in herbal products or isolating them in pure form so they can be more rigorously studied,” Walker said. “That is where our work comes in.”

For the past six years, NCNPR scientists have been testing, analyzing and authenticating botanical dietary supplements under a cooperative agreement with the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

“We are interested in research aimed at ensuring the quality and safety of supplements, and providing that information to the FDA, the botanical supplement community and the public,” Walker said. “Other aspects of our work include basic research on natural products from many different sources - including plants, microbes and ocean life - and on translating our findings to pharmaceutical, agricultural or other applications.”

Part of the center’s work involves collecting, verifying and characterizing medicinal plants and extracts from them. Nearly 1,000 species have grown in the center’s medicinal plant garden, which exchanges material and collaborates with more than 40 institutes worldwide.

“The university has earned its reputation for having one of the largest and best medicinal plant collections in the United States,” said Aruna Weerasooriya, a plant taxonomist who manages the medicinal plant garden.

Obtaining plants or their seeds is a continual process, requiring international travel and transport. “There have been times when getting a species through customs was a problem,” Weerasooriya said. “A few plants have perished en route to Mississippi.”

Correct identification of each species is a critical first step to all other studies, such as determining which chemical compounds are responsible for a particular species’ beneficial effects, how to grow it to optimize production of these compounds, and what the standards for purity and strength should be when the herbal product is sold to consumers. Some species - such as the fever-breaking Eupatorium perfoliatum L., commonly known as boneset - have been studied for introduction to Mississippi farmers as possible cash crops.

“We study their biology, best propagation and cultivation methods, seasonal chemical variations, and best harvesting and post-harvesting processes,” Weerasooriya said. “After harvesting, plants are air-dried to preserve their chemical properties.” Dried plants are ground into powder that NCNPR researchers extract and use in their studies.

Six years ago, David Pasco, a cellular and molecular biologist, and Ikhlas Khan, a pharmacognocist and director of NCNPR’s FDA Program, discovered significant variations in products containing Echinacea, which are marketed as immune system boosters. Three species of the herb - E. angustifolia, E. purpurea and E. pallida - are used in the commercial preparations.

The amount of active compounds in those preparations can vary, depending upon which of the three species and which parts of the plants - leaves, stems or both - are used in the products. That’s because each species and each part of the plant may contain different amounts of active compounds.

“From plant materials collected from 10 different sources around the country, we found up to a hundred fold difference in the materials’ activities,” Pasco said. “Differences in these materials, of course, imply the finished products would reflect the same variations.”

It’s variations like these that worry scientists, who hold strongly to the notion that research results must be replicated to be believed.

“If we don’t use the same species or same plant materials in our studies, our research can never be repeated. And if we don’t have standard materials for clinical trials, how can we determine if [a product or compound] has an efficacy? You really can’t, which poses a big problem for researchers and consumers,” Pasco said. “Standards are extremely important.”

So, too, are the center’s studies aimed at determining how ingredients in dietary supplements might cause harm to cells or organs in the body.

“Some problems with the safety of dietary supplements can stem from the inadvertent use of the wrong plant species in their products,” said center biochemist Shabana Khan.

Other problems can arise when contaminated plant materials are used. Some samples of ginseng, for example, contain fungicides and heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium - which can be bad news for consumers if not monitored and limited. Other herbal products have been found to contain pollen, weeds and other biological contaminants.

So, in addition to screening botanicals for contaminants, NCNPR staff evaluate some botanicals for potential toxicity. Most of the work is done in vitro (in the test tube) using different human cell types cultured in the center’s laboratories.

To determine whether a supplement causes, say, liver or kidney damage, extracts are dropped onto cultures containing human liver or human kidney cells, and cell damage or death is measured. After purification of the extracts, the process is repeated to focus on which compound in the extract kills the cells.

Efficacy, just how well a dietary supplement delivers the health benefits it’s claimed to provide, “is not really a major issue for dietary supplements from a regulatory perspective,” Walker said. That’s because it’s illegal to label, advertise or market supplements as disease treatments or preventatives.

“Under the law, these are ‘drug’ claims, and it’s illegal for any supplement manufacturer to make these claims on its labels,” Walker said.

Manufacturers may make some “structure-function” claims, such as “promotes healthy bones and joints” or “maintains a healthy immune system,” he said. “But generally, the FDA’s center regulating botanical supplements does not deal with how well supplements may work. Rather, they take seriously and as a top priority their safety mission - to first protect the public from potential harm, while not unduly restricting access to the supplements that are available according to law.”

That doesn’t mean NCNPR researchers don’t have a stable of workhorse assays to determine the biological activity, or efficacy, of botanical compounds. They do, but they use the assays to find botanicals with potential to improve human health and to find leads to promising new medicines as part of their thriving drug discovery and development program.

They also determine how effectively botanical compounds are absorbed into the body by measuring how quickly they pass through cell membranes or single-cell layers in cultures with human intestinal cells.

“We can determine if a pure botanical extract would work better in the human body than when it has been compounded with other elements found in supplements,” Shabana Khan said. In the lab, they can also study how supplements interact with other drugs taken at the same time by determining their interaction with drug-metabolizing enzymes.

“This work is important to the health of our citizens,” said UM Pharmacy Dean Barbara Wells. “We’re providing the scientific underpinnings that allow development of standards and greater knowledge about how dietary supplements can be evaluated.”

The center’s work and that of others is paying off.

“Many quality manufacturers and distributors understand the importance of this work and are taking it upon themselves to develop standards, even in cases where it may not be compulsory,” Walker said. “And the industry as a whole, via trade associations and the like, is trying to elevate the general quality and safety of herbal products.”

The FDA chose to partner with NCNPR in this effort because the center is renowned for its work with biologically active plant materials.

“For more than a decade, the center has been an international leader in understanding the chemistry and biology of medicinal plants and their impact on human health,” said UM chief research officer Alice Clark.

>> The conference home page provides a slide show of medicinal plants, print stories, video packages, photographs of key researchers and links to their biographical sketches, as well as links to the FDA, National Institutes of Health and other groups. Click this link http://www.olemiss.edu/news2/botanicals/index.html

For more information about the center and the FDA partnership on botanicals, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/pharmacy/ncnpr.

By Earlyn Shuffler

Without Health There is no Real Wealth

You need Optimum Nutrition to be healthy. Residual income streams will allow us to create wealth but achieving balance is also an essential ingredient in your quest for success and wealth. You must allocate time for yourself (your health) and your family. More and more successful people are coming to the realization that, without health there is no real wealth and you need optimum nutrition to have optimum health.

In Part 2 of this article series, I said that I would cover some ideas for meals that help to optimize your energy and let you focus on your goals every day. By doing so, you will be able to keep building your residual income streams and maintain your health with optimum nutrition.

Most people do not realize that some foods require more energy to digest than the energy which is supplied to the body. These foods are referred to as negative energy foods (e.g. strawberries) and are great for those who want to lose weight. However, I am assuming that you have got your weight under control and you are more interested in eating in such as way that you get maximum energy from the foods you eat.

Support Peak Performance With Optimum Nutrition And Smart Food Choices.

What we eat (and how we combine foods) will determine how much energy we supply to our bodies when we eat. When we combine a vigorous exercise program with sensible eating and great nutritional supplementation, we will always be energized and ready to do our most productive work. The following approach works wonderfully for me:

1. Our Breakfast - Fast Energy Is What We Need The most important thing to do here is never to miss breakfast and we basically should not miss meals. This is one of the main reasons why over-weight people fail to lose weight. They miss a meal and think they should lose weight but do not know that the missed meal only triggers their system to lower their metabolism and store the next meal as fat. We will have to discuss the subject of over-weight in another article.

The best foods for breakfast are fruits. We should start the day with a glass of water (squeeze a small lime or lemon into the water) and drink slowly to clean the digestive tract. You can now eat fruits such as orange and great fruits followed by other fruits such as apple, berries, melons, pears, banana, papaya and other seasonal fruits. All these fruits are easily digested and can therefore supply your body with energy within 30-60 minutes. Other foods like bread, cheese and meats can take 4-8 hours before any energy is available to the body.

Digestion requires more energy that physical exercise so we need to keep the energy required for digestion to a minimum. We can combine our foods in such a way that we make digestion more efficient. Another good way to boost your energy in the morning is to use a great multivitamin nutritional supplement like Symmetry’s Ultra Vitality. After using a nutritional supplement like Ultra Vitality for just a few days you will notice a big change in your energy level through the day.

2. Morning Snacks – Keep it Light. More fruit or a nutritional drink is all you should need for a morning snack about three hours after breakfast.

3. Lunch – Smart Food Combinations. Lunch and dinner are the most important meals of the day as this is where we plan for our longer-term supply of energy. We need to adjust these to fit our lifestyle. If you are a morning person, (starting early) you should use a carbohydrate combined with salad and vegetables for lunch. If you typically work late at night, then eat a meat (protein) combined with salad and vegetables for lunch. Combining salad, vegetables and carbohydrates will allow digestion to work more efficiently than if we combine meats (protein) with carbohydrates. We can therefore choose to either eat meats or carbohydrates combined with salads and vegetables to allow our digestion to work more efficiently.

4. Afternoon Snacks – Keep it Light. More fruit or some nuts (almonds are a healthy choice) and a nutritional drink for an afternoon snack about three hours after lunch.

5. Dinner – Smart Food Combinations. Dinner should be the last meal of the day. If you tend to work late at night you can eat your meat (protein) at lunch and then have your carbohydrates at dinner. If you had your carbohydrates at lunch then have your meat (protein) for dinner. The same general rules should be followed: add a salad and vegetables to complete your meal.

Use Optimum Nutrition and Have More Energy to Focus on Creating Streams of Residual Income

I have done extensive research and tried many things before discovering the power of smart food combinations and great nutritional supplementation. Now I have the experience of more than ten year’s results to tell you that this works. If you want to search the Internet you will find tons of resources to confirm what I have shared above.

One of the first books I read on the importance of food combinations was “Back to Eden”. I later started using nutritional supplements by Symmetry (refer to my website for more information on optimum nutrition) and I regularly exercise three or four days a week. I encourage you to find what works for you so you can enjoy good health and create wealth with multiple streams of residual income.

  Last Updated: 10:32 PM May 31, 2007

New Ways to Defy the Aging Process

We all want to look younger and there is a multi-million dollar market worth of products that claim to do just that.

But it turns out that you may be better off looking inside your refrigerator.

The quest for beautiful skin never ends, and now, the age-defying antioxidants found in teas are being brewed right into skin care products.

Kiehl’s is one of the first high end skin care companies in the country using an herbal tea as a main ingredient in its products.
“It’s a botanical that’s known to sustain life because of the amount of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that it contains,” said Chad Richter, Kiehl’s general manager.

Kiehl’s is using the properties from the yerba mate herb found in the Atlantic forests of Brazil.

Their three new formulas contain vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants, as well as a company guarantee to rejuvenate the skin for a healthy looking, youthful appearance.

“This is an oil-free formula that’s good for all skin types,” explained Richter.

That is not the only secret to looking younger – what you drink may also help you look, feel and age better.

This miracle drink contains a unique fruit found in the Amazon rain forest called the acai berry.

“I had tremendous pain in my joints, but since taking the product the pain in my joints is all but gone,” said Greg Sepe, a distributor from MonaVie.

MonaVie, the company that distributes the “superfruit” drink, says that the benefits are endless, ranging from treating numerous ailments to being a source of health and vitality.

A bottle of the MonaVie berry drink costs about 12 dollars.

Keihl’s yerba mate skin care is a little more expensive, with products running anywhere between 20 and 35 dollars each.

Jodie Stults is a local, independent distributor of MonaVie and she can be reached by email at berryjuice@mac.com.

• Without Health There is no Real Wealth

You need Optimum Nutrition to be healthy. Residual income streams will allow us to create wealth but it has to be stressed that balance is also an essential ingredient in your quest for success and wealth. You must allocate time for yourself (your health) and your family or the one’s you love and care about. More and more successful people are coming to the realisation that, without health there is no real wealth and you need optimum nutrition to have optimum health.

It is advisable to take up a form of exercise to keep your mind and body positively active. A healthy body serves as a perfect vehicle to do well. Have you ever noticed how alive you feel after taking a brisk walk, an early morning jog or completing a fast pace workout in the gym? This type of exercise gets the blood flowing and demands deep breathing, which helps to remove toxins from the blood and push more oxygenated blood through your brain. You feel energised and ready to take on the world because your metabolism is in high gear - but you need optimum nutrition to sustain that energy.

I have been fortunate to discover the benefits of balancing life and making room for exercise, quiet time for reading/meditating, continuous learning and planning time for work so that I have a sense of balance. We all want to create enough reliable streams of residual income so we can achieve financial independence but it is also important to include a plan for maintaining good health and a balanced lifestyle. There are many ways to do this but I would like to share five basic rules that have worked for me over the last twenty five years.

1. Do not become a workaholic or a wealthpreneur freak in your quest for success, lest it damage your relationships with the ones you love and also your attempts to sincerely succeed in life.

2. Do not deviate from the path of righteousness or the Law of Nature. It is great fun indeed to witness success and wealth, and the joy that wells up is beyond belief. However, if happiness, joy and success all come at once at the expense of your health, then I am afraid it is all a terrible waste.

3. Believe in your own success. Wealthy individuals create their own career/destiny because they are true believers of their own ability to achieve success. You want to be healthy and live long enough to enjoy what you have created.

4. Maintain a positive attitude in everything you do. The habitual inclination of our thought patterns is ultimately the deciding factor, which determines our abilities, talents and personal characteristics. This valuable information lies in the art of cultivating the thought patterns that bring success. We are what we think we are.

5. Believe that you can accomplish anything through the power of thought. You must use the power of visualization and your imagination to allow yourself to have a clear picture of your success while achieving your earnest goal. It is true when Masters say that: Your Thoughts create the environment. Successful people learn to surround themselves with people and things that support their success.

In Part 4 of this article series I will expand further on what I have learnt about the power of maintaining a positive attitude and managing my thoughts to support my success goals. However, in Part One I want to share a few thoughts about how to use Optimum Nutrition to maintain good health while achieving wealth.

Support Peak Performance with Optimum Nutrition.

So often I have worked with people who are constantly complaining about being tired. How can you focus and produce your best work if you lack energy and enthusiasm for the task at hand. If you have ever been - tired of being tired, you need to take another look at what you are feeding your body. What we eat provides the fuel for our bodies and will determine the energy we have available to focus and vigorously produce the results we want each day. Get Genesis for a real energy boost. Many of us use the computer as a tool in building our online businesses and know how easy it is to spend 8-10 hours a day sitting. We need to have a vigorous exercise program to balance this inactivity and great nutrition to keep us energised. The following approach works wonderfully for me:

1. Begin the day with a quiet time for meditation and review of your plan of Action for the day.· Prepare a power drink and/or your energy nutrition with some fruit to put some instant fuel in the system. Visit my website and check out the Optimum Nutrition web page for some of the most powerful nutrition available today.
2. Workout for 30-60 minutes to get your body stimulated with some physical exercise. Do what you like best because this should be a lifestyle that we commit to. Some may like a jog, take a brisk walk, a yoga session, a swim in the ocean or a workout in your favourite gym.
3. Now you are ready for your first meal of the day and your energy booster (check out Symmetry’s Ultra Vitality and Genesis). Most mornings I just eat seasonal fruits and my selection of nutritional supplements because this provides the quickest supply of energy to get me started. Most fruits digest in less than an hour while other food such as bread/serials will take over four hours to digest before they can supply you with any energy, so my first choice is fruits in the morning.

In Parts 2 & 3 of this article series, I will cover some ideas for meals that help to optimise your energy and let you focus on your goals every day. You will be able to keep building your residual income streams and maintain your health with optimum nutrition.

Earlyn Shuffler

By Tanya Buckley

So, I know what you’re thinking… “What exactly is a Mangosteen, anyway?” Good question. The mangosteen is a small purplish fruit grown primarily in Southeast Asia and is called the Queen of Fruits. Queen Victoria was so jazzed by the fruit she would offer Knighthood to anyone who could bring her fresh supplies. The fruit grows on trees that reach anywhere from 20 to 80 feet tall. It is widely believed that the trees originated in the islands of Sunda and Molucca in the East Indies. The trees are extremely sensitive to climate and cannot tolerate temperatures below 40�F or above 100�F. All attempts at growing mangosteen trees in locations north of 20� latitude have failed. It takes up to 9 years for the tree to mature before the first harvest can be taken but on average the first harvest takes place within 10 to 20 years. So if you were thinking of planting a tree in the backyard you might what to reconsider. Unless you live in the tropics of course and have the patience of a saint. You might what to also take into consideration the amount of time you can dedicate to picking fruit because each mangosteen must be picked by hand and the average full-grown tree yields about 500 ripe mangosteen fruits. But some trees can yield as many as 5,000 and the trees can provide fruit for up to 100 years. Not gardening for the faint of heart. The scientific name is Garcinia Mangostana, and for thousands of years it has not only been eating as a delicious tropical fruit but also used in folk medicine for various ailments. The medicinal value is actually not in the fruit itself but in the rind. The hard leathery rind is ground into a powder, poultice or tea and used to treat diarrhea, dysentery, skin ailments, chronic pain, infection, fever and inflammation amongst others. Researched for over 30 years by doctors overseas the fruit has only recently come to the attention of western medicine. Mainly because of powerful phytonutrients called xanthones which the mangosteen has in abundance. In the same way that the discovery of antioxidants and their importance in overall health has become common knowledge, the xanthone is beginning to show the same promise. OK, so now we know what a mangosteen is, “But what on earth is a xanthone?” Glad you asked. Xanthones are a unique class of phytonutrients that are a biologically active group of molecules. Let’s try that in plain English shall we. They are supercharged antioxidants with powerful anti-inflammatory properties. Several of the mangosteen’s xanthones possess additional disease fighting properties active against infectious agents, cholesterol damage, cancer cells and more. Over 200 xanthones have been identified in nature. The mangosteen fruit contains a greater concentration of xanthones then any other botanical known to man; over forty xanthones identified so far. They are largely responsible for the multifaceted health-promoting properties of the fruit. Over the past decade more and more diseases have been shown to be the result of two major causes – inflammation and free radical damage. Those crazy radicals! Free radical damage has the ability to damage and destroy organs, cells and even our DNA. Chronic inflammation, as well, has been linked to numerous illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, allergies, heart disease, and Crohn’s. Offering an abundance of antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties mangosteen has the potential to be beneficial in a large number of health conditions. The mangosteen is not readily available as a fruit outside of Southeast Asia. But it can be purchased as a supplement. It is available as a powder in pill form or as a liquid supplement. In pill form look for brands that contain the whole fruit including the rind. Look to make sure you are getting all forty of the xanthones available. Pay attention to the process in which the company creates the powder. Sometimes the extraction process can cause more harm then good. Make sure you know what you’re getting before you put down your hard earned money. If buying a liquid supplement check to make sure you are getting a whole fruit puree including the rind. Not something reconstituted from a powder extract or something that contains only the fruit itself without the rind. Check to see that whole fruit mangosteen puree is one of the primary ingredients. If they give a list of other juices and no mangosteen juice then it comes from a powdered extract. When you see such things on the label as “unique mangosteen peel extract” or “Mangosteen Fruit & Pericarp Extract” these are powdered extracts. Also be on the look out for products that say things such as “Alpha mangosteen”. The Alpha is only one of the over forty xanthones available from the mangosteen fruit and you’re not getting the full bang for your buck. Shop wisely and be health. And there you have it a brief history of the mangosteen the funny little purple fruit from Asia. I am a full time writer and playwright and certified health nut. I have fully recovered from two chronic, incurable (supposedly), illnesses using natural, holistic methods. I now write articles about the techniques I used so that I might help others. My articles are for information purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Please visit me at http://www.mymangosteenforhealth.net Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tanya_Buckley

• This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 9:19 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

The benefit of noni juice may seem too good to be true. Just read the testimonials sent in to a Hawaiian noni juice company and decide for yourself if noni juice is quackery or not! I think you’ll have to agree there is something to this noni juice.

Bad allergies lessened as a benefit of noni juice?

Just talked to Terry and am excited about this. My friend and I bought our first bottle of noni juice 2 Sundays ago from your family at the flea market. Am so glad we did. I have tried it for a week now and my bad allergies have lessened. I want to give it more of a try so have ordered some more. Terry was very pleasant and easy to talk to. God Bless You All…..–Patty

Arthritis benefit of noni juice

I have placed two orders for noni juice from your company and have been very satisfied with the product and service. I have also shared your product with family and friends who are also satisfied. Noni is a true medicinal product even if it is not totally understood how it works as it heals the body.

My mother has been on noni 6 weeks and the results are very visible. Where she was suffering from arthritis and other ailments, she is walking with no pain and enjoying life again. Noni is doing what other expensive medications were not able to do, not to mention all the side effects, which nearly put her in a coma, and in the hospital for 11 days. -Lucus

Asthma benefit of noni juice

I first stumbled upon Noni Juice by accident about 7 months ago when I was searching for some help with my asthma. After years of inhalers and Nebulizer treatments, I felt I had become dependent on the chemical medications. I also have high blood pressure, some mild arthritis in my hands and feet, and 5 years ago at the age of 42, I needed a double by-pass due to blockages in the arteries to my heart. Needless to say, I was aging rapidly from all the health problems…and I was angry, because I felt I was far too young to be dealing with these things. I’ve always been an active person, ate a fairly sound diet, wasn’t overweight…so why all these problems?
I started using Noni Juice thinking that at the very least, I’d get some much needed vitamin C…and perhaps with any luck, it would have a positive effect on some of these problems. I began by taking 2 ounces morning and night, and really didn’t expect to see any results for awhile. I thought I’d give it about a month and if I saw no change I would give it up.
Within 3 days I began to see some subtle differences. Upon awakening on the third day, I noticed as I was standing in the kitchen getting my coffee, that I’d had no pain in my feet that morning and was able to simply get out of bed and walk to the kitchen…I didn’t need to massage my feet or fingers and I felt no pain whatsoever in them! Then I began to really pay attention. I was still skeptical…but cautiously beginning to hope that Noni Juice might be helping. The next benefit of noni juice I noticed was in my emotional state…I found myself feeling less stressed, happier, and with a general feeling of well being. By the end of the first week, I no longer was using my inhaler more than once a day…by the end of the second week, I did not need it at all. By the end of the first month, my hair which had been rapidly thinning ceased falling out, and I realized that I hadn’t had one single painful bout with the arthritis since I had begun using Noni Juice. In the third month of using Noni Juice, I came down with a bout of bronchitis, an illness that I’ve been plagued with ever since my heart surgery 5 years ago. Usually, a bout of bronchitis for me means that I will cough and be miserable for about 6 weeks, and need at least 2 rounds of antibiotics to get over it. This time, I doubled up on my Noni Juice morning and night (4 oz.) and sipped 1 oz. every 6 hours throughout the day, and I kicked that bout of bronchitis in 10 days with NO antibiotics!
Over the course of the next 3 months, I felt better than I had in 10 years. My family and coworkers were delighted that I was becoming active and happy again…and then I made the BIG mistake!
My daughter had become engaged to be married during this time, and I was devoting all my spare time to planning and coordinating her wedding for her. I worked long hours, slept little and worried alot about the expense…and 6 weeks ago, I ran out of Noni Juice. I decided that it would have to wait..I couldn’t afford to spend that extra money on myself with all those wedding bills.
I awakened this morning for the 5th day in a row with pain in both feet and hands. For the past 3 days, I’ve needed the inhalers again to clear my lungs enough to take a deep breath, and this morning I found 4 more hairs on my pillow that had fallen out in my sleep. What was I thinking?!
I just ordered another case of Noni Juice…if it arrives in 2 days, and I do a “loading dose schedule” of 4 oz. morning and night, I figure I may just be able to dance at my daughter’s wedding in a week without the painful ache of arthritis in my feet. And I will never again go without my benefit of Noni Juice! -Bobbi

1. Pure Hoodia Gordonii From South Africa

• Great Appetite Suppressant
• Completely Safe and Effective
• All Natural Ingredients
This cactus-like plant contains substances that may exert dramatic control over hunger, appetite, and thirst. Although the Hoodia gordonii plant looks like a cactus, it belongs to a category of plants called succulents. The use of Hoodia as an appetite suppressant is supported by both colorful folklore history and recent scientific studies. Hoodia is well known to the San bushmen of South Africa , who learned from the teachings of their ancestors to eat this plant to reduce hunger sensations. The San bushmen of South Africa believe that Hoodia is their food, water, and medicine.

Hoodia gordonii has been used for centuries by the San bushmen of South Africa . These people may have, at times, consumed Hoodia on a regular basis. The “San” are known to have chewed on the plant during times of food scarcity, in order to alleviate hunger and thirst. Hoodia gordonii was found by bushmen to be particularly valuable for use during arduous hunting expeditions in the Kalahari desert . The Kalahari desert is a principle home for the San bushmen and it is a prime location for the growth of the succulent plant, Hoodia gordonii. The power of this succulent plant, known to the San as !khoba (Hoodia) is going to be a continuing focus of international attention in the fight against the global pandemic of obesity. The world has finally listened to the “San” people.

The traditional use of Hoodia gordonii for its appetite suppressant effect involved the eating of whole, fresh plants or perhaps dried plants. Flowers, roots, and spiky skin on the plant were not eaten readily by anyone, including the hardy San bushmen. The natural use of Hoodia involved cutting open the skin, and eating or drinking the flesh and sap of the plant. In fact, several TV correspondents have taken the plant in this traditional form. These newscasters, along with others, comment upon its bitterness, and almost immediate effects on appetite suppression. It is clear that Hoodia gordonii cannot be taken in this fresh form by many consumers. Therefore, the Hoodia plant in South Africa has been processed by drying the plant and producing powder or concentrates that can be used in dietary supplements, or perhaps added to food.

The use of Hoodia in a dietary supplement is closer to the traditional use of Hoodia than the isolation of certain extracts of Hoodia (steroidal glycosides). Although recent scientific experiments seem to support that specific fractions or extracts of Hoodia gordonii are responsible for its major effects on appetite, it is not safe to assume that other ingredients within Hoodia do not contribute to its many effects in humans. The precedent for the safety of taking Hoodia rests with the use of the whole plant, not with the use of extracts such as steroidal glycosides.

This product is for adults only. Do not use this product if you are pregnant, nursing, or have the following conditions: high blood pressure, heart disease, thyroid disease, glaucoma, diabetes, difficulty urinating due to prostate enlargement, or if you are now taking a prescription monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) (certain drugs for depression, psychiatric or emotional conditions, or Parkinson’s disease), or for two (2) weeks after stopping the MAOI drug. If you are uncertain whether your prescription drug contains an MAOI, consult your physician before taking this product. Do not exceed recommended dosage.

• By Sean M Williams

Adding nutritional supplements to our daily diet can help us live longer, maintain good over-all health, and help manage difficult medical problems. If you’re like most of us, you know what you need, but sometimes there’s just too much information out there about where to obtain the best nutritional supplements. Health stores, drug stores, magazines, newspapers, television, and the Internet contain un-ending sources of all sorts of supplements. It can make you dizzy just contemplating everything that’s available!

How Do I Choose the Best Nutritional Supplements?

Before purchasing a supplement, there are several things to keep in mind. First, what is the price of the product? Sometimes “more” is not always “better.” For example, you may see a nationally-known brand of a supplement that is fairly pricey, maybe more than you can afford. Look for the store’s own brand; you’ll find that it contains exactly the same supplement, but for a much lower price than the “name brand.”

Expensive advertising doesn’t necessarily mean that the product is one of the best nutritional supplements; it just means the manufacturer has plenty of money to sell the product. If you see it advertised in a magazine or on television, expect to pay more. Advertising isn’t free, and you, the consumer, end up paying the cost of advertising by purchasing nationally-advertised brands.

Another thing to consider is how long a company has been in business. The best nutritional supplements usually derive from new, enthusiastic “start-up” companies that are seeking to establish a superior reputation among the legions of competitors, or long-time companies with good reputations. Examine Internet sites; do they offer testimonials from satisfied customers? How do they describe their product? For example, if you wish to find the best Goji Juice nutritional supplement, how accurate is the site’s description of the product? Is reputable evidence included that verifies the company’s claims of its benefits? Is the Goji Juice fresh and natural?

Some of the best nutritional supplements i.e. the “Top Sellers,” are ginkgo biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, Himalayan Goji Juice, echinacea, goldenseal, kava kava, valerian, feverfew, soy and black cohosh root. Vitamins are essential to good health, but here again, you’ll find store brands much less expensive than nationally advertised brands. The best nutritional supplements are well-packaged to prevent spoilage. Be sure to check the product’s expiration date; many stores neglect to examine and discard products that are past their prime.

Finally, you may learn about the best nutritional supplements through word of mouth from family, friends, co-workers and medical personnel. Just ask! Every one will have their favorite, most reliable supplements that have truly helped them feel better, look better and live better.

If you found this article interesting - head over to http://www.healthyhabitsblog.com This article was written by Sean Williams. Sean also maintains the blog with dozens of health related articles. Sean has a big interest in health and wellbeing, and believes in preventing disease rather than curing it. Sean lives in New Zealand.

• Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sean_M_Williams