Armando V. Guzman, M.D.:  My experience with mangosteen dates back to my childhood in the Philippines. I remember being so excited at age nine or ten because twice a year, friends of my parents would bring us a large basket of mangosteen fruits. We would enjoy the inside of the fruit then throw away the rind, or pericarp. But my grandmother would scold us because she would use the pericarp to make tea and healing poultices. She would give it to us for diarrhea, fever, headaches and more.

In 1989 I was in a very serious bicycle accident. I was racing in Tucson, and as I went down a hill at 50 mph, a car cut in front of me, and I crashed into it. I had severe facial injuries and fractures, and I fractured my cervical spine and lower back. It is a miracle I'm not a quadriplegic today. During the course of years, I started having problems with severe, traumatic arthritis and compression syndrome in my back. It had become so painful that I needed to take Celebrex and Vioxx for the pain. I also had to take some narcotics at night because the pain was so severe I couldn't sleep.

I was going to have surgery on my back to decompress it, but I decided to hold off. Then a friend of mine called me and told me about the launch of a mangosteen juice.

I began using three ounces twice a day. After the first week, I didn't have to take the narcotics at night. After another week, I didn't have to use any medications because I was completely pain free.

Because of my healing experience, I started researching the mangosteen fruit and read many studies from around the Pacific Rim. I started sharing it with my patients as a complement to traditional medications they take. I have found that many patients have been able to taper their medications while on the mangosteen.

I have a patient who came to me with many tumors on his neck. I was fairly positive that it was cancer, and when we did a biopsy, it turned out to be squamous cell carcinoma. I recommended the mangosteen juice after reading about its anti-cancer properties.

It seems that more and more medical doctors are opening their minds to complementing with natural, alternative solutions. In fact, there has been an increase in visits to alternative practitioners in the last few years. More patients are becoming educated about natural alternatives and approach us with questions and suggestions. I personally think mangosteen is a superior natural product because it has been researched for the last 20 plus years, and even more so in the last five years, and the findings are amazing.