Radiation Experts: Radiation Standards Are Up to 1,000 Higher Than Is Safe for the Human Body

Monday, April 4, 2011


Radiation Experts: Radiation Standards Are Up to 1,000 Higher Than Is Safe for the Human Body









The U.S. federal drinking water standard for radioactive Iodine-131 is 3 picocuries per liter, but levels exceeding that by as much as 181 times have been detected in rainwater sampled in California, Idaho, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.



Radioactivity has also been found in milk from Spokane, Washington.



Safe Levels of Radiation?



The government says there is no danger, as these levels (even levels in rainwater above drinking water standards) are "safe". Specifically, they explain that the exposure is only short-term, while federal drinking water standards assume a constant level of radiation over the course of a year.





In addition, not all of the radiation from the rainwater will end up in the drinking water supply. So - say federal and state governments - there is no danger from short-term exposure to such levels of radiation.



But as I pointed out recently:







Physicians for Social Responsibility notes:



According to the National Academy of Sciences, there are no safe doses of radiation. Decades of research show clearly that any dose of radiation increases an individual’s risk for the development of cancer.



“There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water or other sources. Period,” said Jeff Patterson, DO, immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Exposure to radionuclides, such as iodine-131 and cesium-137, increases the incidence of cancer. For this reason, every effort must be taken to minimize the radionuclide content in food and water.”



“Consuming food containing radionuclides is particularly dangerous. If an individual ingests or inhales a radioactive particle, it continues to irradiate the body as long as it remains radioactive and stays in the body,”said Alan H. Lockwood, MD, a member of the Board of Physicians for Social Responsibility.



***



Radiation can be concentrated many times in the food chain and any consumption adds to the cumulative risk of cancer and other diseases.

John LaForge notes:



The National Council on Radiation Protection says, “… every increment of radiation exposure produces an incremen­tal increase in the risk of cancer.” The Environmental Protection Agency says, “… any exposure to radiation poses some risk, i.e. there is no level below which we can say an exposure poses no risk.” The Department of Energy says about “low levels of radiation” that “… the major effect is a very slight increase in cancer risk.” The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says, “any amount of radiation may pose some risk for causing cancer ... any increase in dose, no matter how small, results in an incremental increase in risk.” The National Academy of Sciences, in its “Biological Effects of Ionizing Radiation VII,” says, “... it is unlikely that a threshold exists for the induction of cancers ....”



Long story short, “One can no longer speak of a ‘safe’ dose level,” as Dr. Ian Fairlie and Dr. Marvin Resnikoff said in their report “No dose too low,” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.



And Brian Moench, MD, writes:



Administration spokespeople continuously claim "no threat" from the radiation reaching the US from Japan, just as they did with oil hemorrhaging into the Gulf. Perhaps we should all whistle "Don't worry, be happy" in unison. A thorough review of the science, however, begs a second opinion.



That the radiation is being released 5,000 miles away isn't as comforting as it seems.... Every day, the jet stream carries pollution from Asian smoke stacks and dust from the Gobi Desert to our West Coast, contributing 10 to 60 percent of the total pollution breathed by Californians, depending on the time of year. Mercury is probably the second most toxic substance known after plutonium. Half the mercury in the atmosphere over the entire US originates in China. It, too, is 5,000 miles away. A week after a nuclear weapons test in China, iodine 131 could be detected in the thyroid glands of deer in Colorado, although it could not be detected in the air or in nearby vegetation.



The idea that a threshold exists or there is a safe level of radiation for human exposure began unraveling in the 1950s when research showed one pelvic x-ray in a pregnant woman could double the rate of childhood leukemia in an exposed baby. Furthermore, the risk was ten times higher if it occurred in the first three months of pregnancy than near the end. This became the stepping-stone to the understanding that the timing of exposure was even more critical than the dose. The earlier in embryonic development it occurred, the greater the risk.



A new medical concept has emerged, increasingly supported by the latest research, called "fetal origins of disease," that centers on the evidence that a multitude of chronic diseases, including cancer, often have their origins in the first few weeks after conception by environmental insults disturbing normal embryonic development. It is now established medical advice that pregnant women should avoid any exposure to x-rays, medicines or chemicals when not absolutely necessary, no matter how small the dose, especially in the first three months.





"Epigenetics" is a term integral to fetal origins of disease, referring to chemical attachments to genes that turn them on or off inappropriately and have impacts functionally similar to broken genetic bonds. Epigenetic changes can be caused by unimaginably small doses - parts per trillion - be it chemicals, air pollution, cigarette smoke or radiation. Furthermore, these epigenetic changes can occur within minutes after exposure and may be passed on to subsequent generations.



The Endocrine Society, 14,000 researchers and medical specialists in more than 100 countries, warned that "even infinitesimally low levels of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals, indeed, any level of exposure at all, may cause endocrine or reproductive abnormalities, particularly if exposure occurs during a critical developmental window. Surprisingly, low doses may even exert more potent effects than higher doses." If hormone-mimicking chemicals at any level are not safe for a fetus, then the concept is likely to be equally true of the even more intensely toxic radioactive elements drifting over from Japan, some of which may also act as endocrine disruptors.



Many epidemiologic studies show that extremely low doses of radiation increase the incidence of childhood cancers, low birth-weight babies, premature births, infant mortality, birth defects and even diminished intelligence. Just two abdominal x-rays delivered to a male can slightly increase the chance of his future children developing leukemia. By damaging proteins anywhere in a living cell, radiation can accelerate the aging process and diminish the function of any organ. Cells can repair themselves, but the rapidly growing cells in a fetus may divide before repair can occur, negating the body's defense mechanism and replicating the damage.



Comforting statements about the safety of low radiation are not even accurate for adults. Small increases in risk per individual have immense consequences in the aggregate. When low risk is accepted for billions of people, there will still be millions of victims. New research on risks of x-rays illustrate the point.



Radiation from CT coronary scans is considered low, but, statistically, it causes cancer in one of every 270 40-year-old women who receive the scan. Twenty year olds will have double that rate. Annually, 29,000 cancers are caused by the 70 million CT scans done in the US. Common, low-dose dental x-rays more than double the rate of thyroid cancer. Those exposed to repeated dental x-rays have an even higher risk of thyroid cancer.



***



Beginning with Madam Curie, the story of nuclear power is one where key players have consistently miscalculated or misrepresented the risks of radiation. The victims include many of those who worked on the original Manhattan Project, the 200,000 soldiers who were assigned to eye witness our nuclear tests, the residents of the Western US who absorbed the lion's share of fallout from our nuclear testing in Nevada, the thousands of forgotten victims of Three Mile Island or the likely hundreds of thousands of casualties of Chernobyl. This could be the latest chapter in that long and tragic story when, once again, we were told not to worry.





Internal Emitters



Proponents of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons argue that we can't eliminate all man-made radioactivity, that nuclear power and weapons are good, and that we need standards to promote a logical cost-benefit analysis.



But as I noted last week, the current standards are misleading:





There are, of course, naturally occurring radioactive materials.





But lumping all types of radiation together is misleading ... and is comparing apples to oranges.



As the National Research Council's Committee to Assess the Scientific Information for the Radiation Exposure Screening and Education Program explains:



Radioactivity generates radiation by emitting particles. Radioactive materials outside the the body are called external emitters, and radioactive materials located within the body are called internal emitters.

Internal emitters are much more dangerous than external emitters. Specifically, one is only exposed to radiation as long as he or she is near the external emitter.



For example, when you get an x-ray, an external emitter is turned on for an instant, and then switched back off.



But internal emitters steadily and continuously emit radiation for as long as the particle remains radioactive, or until the person dies - whichever occurs first. As such, they are much more dangerous.



Dr. Helen Caldicott and many other medical doctors and scientists have confirmed this. See this and this.



***



It is important to note that each individual internal emitters behaves differently. They each accumulate in different places in the body, target different organs, mimic different vitamins and minerals, and are excreted differently (or not at all). Therefore, comparing radioactive cesium or iodine with naturally occurring radioactive substances - even those which can become internal emitters - is incorrect and misleading.



As radiation expert Dr. Chris Busby writes:



Since the Fukushima accident we have seen a stream of experts on radiation telling us not to worry, that the doses are too low, that the accident is nothing like Chernobyl and so forth. They appear on television and we read their articles in the newspapers and online. Fortunately the majority of the public don't believe them.



***



Patients receiving a course of radiotherapy usually get a dose of more than 20,000 mSv to vital healthy tissue close to the treated tumour. This tissue survives only because the treatment is spread over many days giving healthy cells time for repair or replacement. A sea-change is needed in our attitude to radiation, starting with education and public information.



***



External irradiation is not the problem. The problem is internal irradiation. The Iodine-131 is not in the whole body, it is in the thyroid gland and attached to the blood cells: hence the thyroid cancer and the leukaemia. And there is a whole list of internal radioactive elements that bind chemically to DNA, from Strontium-90 to Uranium. These give massive local doses to the DNA and to the tissues where they end up. The human body is not a piece of wire that you can apply physics to. The concept of dose which [Pollyannas use] cannot be used for internal exposures. This has been conceded by the ICRP itself in its publications. And in an interview with me in Stockholm in 2009, Dr Jack Valentin, the ex-Scientific Secretary of the ICRP conceded this, and also made the statement that the ICRP risk model, the one used by all governments to assess the outcome of accidents like Fukushima, was unsafe and could not be used. You can see this interview on the internet, on www.vimeo.com.

Why is the ICRP model unsafe? Because it is based on "absorbed dose". This is average radiation energy in Joules divided by the mass of living tissue into which it is diluted. A milliSievert is one milliJoule of energy diluted into one kilogram of tissue. As such it would not distinguish between warming yourself in front of a fire and eating a red hot coal. It is the local distribution of energy that is the problem. The dose from a singly internal alpha particle track to a single cell is 500mSv! The dose to the whole body from the same alpha track is 5 x 10-11 mSv. That is 0.000000000005mSv. But it is the dose to the cell that causes the genetic damage and the ultimate cancer. The cancer yield per unit dose employed by ICRP is based entirely on external acute high dose radiation at Hiroshima, where the average dose to a cell was the same for all cells.



***



The last thing [proponents of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy] wanted was the doctors and epidemiologists stopping their fun. The IAEA and the World Health Organisation (WHO) signed an agreement in 1959 to remove all research into the issue from the doctors of the WHO, to the atom scientists, the physicists of the IAEA: this agreement is still in force. The UN organisations do not refer to, or cite any scientific study, which shows their statements on Chernobyl to be false. There is a huge gap between the picture painted by the UN, the IAEA, the ICRP and the real world. And the real world is increasingly being studied and reports are being published in the scientific literature: but none of the authorities responsible for looking after the public take any notice of this evidence.



The Politics Behind the "Science"



I wrote to professor Busby and asked him if the faulty standards - based on external emitters - applied to radiation standards for drinking water, milk and food as well. Specifically, I asked:



Are the current "safe levels" of radioactivity set by governments for drinking water, milk and food based upon external emitters? Or upon internal emitters? I know that the Committee Examining Radiation Risks of Internal Emitters (CERRIE) [an independent Committee established by the UK Government in 2001, in which Dr. Busby participated] looked at this issue, but I can't figure out whether governments ever changed their "safe" levels for food and beverages based on internal emitter science.

I mentioned the radioactive iodine found in rainwater in the U.S. and pointed out that the Canadian government is refusing to test milk for radiation - which is guaranteed to create internal emitters of any radiation when we drink it - based on the statement that radiation levels in the air are not all that high:







Dr. Busby responded:



The current risk model is based upon external acute radiation at high dose rate, the Japanese A-Bomb [i.e. from measurements of the effect of uniform, external radiation on the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]. It is incorrect for internal and this was discussed at CERRIE but the implications were so alarming that the government sacked the Environment minister Michael Meacher who set up the committee and shut it down before it had finished (or even started) the research it was doing and also brought legal threats to bear on members so the final report is a whitewash, even though it concedes the problem exists and that the error may be as high at 10-fold. In fact, there is plenty of data and studies that show the error is from 500 to upwards of 1000. But this is not for all radionuclides, only some. The ECRR (www.euradcom.org) has studied this issue and provided risk model for internal emitters.



Dr. Busby explained that the standards for radioiodine are about 20 times higher than they should be when it will be taken inside the body, and for certain radioactive particulates, up to 1,000 times higher than is safe.



Note: Even though current standards are way too high, the EPA is trying to raise the current standards much higher. Just as with the Gulf oil spill and other environmental (and economic) problems, governments are fudging the "science" (and suppressing basic information) to fit a political agenda.

Radiation Experts: Radiation Standards Are Up to 1,000 Higher Than Is Safe for the Human Body

Radiation Experts: Radiation Standards Are Up to 1,000 Higher Than Is Safe for the Human Body


Tags: FUKUSHIMA DISASTER

According to the National Academy of Sciences, there are no safe doses of radiation. Decades of research show clearly that any dose of radiation increases an individual’s risk for the development of cancer.



“There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water or other sources. Period,” said Jeff Patterson, DO, immediate past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “Exposure to radionuclides, such as iodine-131 and cesium-137, increases the incidence of cancer. For this reason, every effort must be taken to minimize the radionuclide content in food and water.”

Greenpeace Measures EXTREME RADIATION 40km From Fukushima Daiichi

Greenpeace Measures EXTREME RADIATION 40km From Fukushima Daiichi

Fukishima Update

The new eugenics: Life in our vast chemical vats

The new eugenics: Life in our vast chemical vats


March 31, 2011 by ppjg





Marti Oakley (c) copyright 2011 All Rights Reserved

Tropical Fruits that Can Change Your Life Posted By Dr. Mercola

5 Tropical Fruits that Can Change Your Life Posted By Dr. Mercola
April 01 2011
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Many people love the flavor of tropical fruits like coconut and mangoes. But did you know that, aside from tasting good, they also have healthy benefits that in some instances could be lifesaving?



For example, five of the most outstanding fruits that can change your life are



•Coconut,

•Mangosteen,

•Avocado,

•Mango, and

•Longan berries.

Scientists believe an anti-oxidant in mangosteens can cause cell death in cancer; and avocadoes, mangoes, and longan berries are rich with vitamins and nutrients that can help prevent common birth defects as well as cancer.



With coconuts, the juice – or water inside – not only is sterile, but has the same electrolytic balance as human blood, which enabled medics in the Pacific Theater in World War II to use it as an emergency substitute for plasma. And not too many years ago, coconut oil's bad reputation caused a panic at the concession stands, when a study claimed that a large movie-theater popcorn, cooked in the oil, delivered as much saturated fat as six Big Macs.



But coconut oil has recently become the darling of the natural-foods world.



Scientists are backtracking on the worst accusations against coconut oil. It turns out that most of the studies involving coconut oil were done with partially hydrogenated coconut oil. Virgin coconut oil, which has not been chemically treated, is an entirely different thing from a health risk perspective -- partial hydrogenation creates trans fats and destroys the essential fatty acids, antioxidants and other positive components present in virgin coconut oil.



According to the New York Times:



"And while it's true that most of the fats in virgin coconut oil are saturated, opinions are changing on whether saturated fats are the arterial villains they were made out to be ... The main saturated fat in coconut oil is lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid. Lauric acid increases levels of good HDL, or high-density lipoprotein".

Sources:

Lifehack.org March 7, 2011



New York Times March 1, 2011







Dr. Mercola's Comments:





Whole fruit, especially organically grown fruits that are naturally low in fructose, are part of a healthy diet and when eaten in moderation offer your body a laundry list of benefits from all the vitamins, enzymes and minerals contained in them. Lost sometimes in the debate and confusion about fructose, high fructose corn syrup, and fruit juices is the fact that whole, organic fruit is a great source of nutrients and has been a natural part of our diet on this planet since, well, forever.



But the devil is in the details, as usual.



Is Fruit—which is a Source of Fructose—Good or Bad?

Today the threat of added sugars, especially fructose and high fructose corn syrup (and ALL added sugars, really) has become one of the greatest pitfalls to good health in our food chain. Study after study links high sugar consumption to a long list of health problems, and the main offenders in this category are not whole, natural organic fruits, but added sugars that Americans are consuming in an "alarming number" on a daily basis.



Keep in mind that fruits also contain fructose, although an ameliorating factor is that whole fruits also contain vitamins and other antioxidants that reduce the hazardous effects of fructose. Juices, on the other hand, are nearly as detrimental as soda, because a glass of juice is loaded with fructose, and a lot of the antioxidants are lost.



It is important to remember that fructose alone isn't evil, as some fruit can certainly be beneficial. But when you consume high levels of fructose it will absolutely devastate your biochemistry and physiology. Remember the AVERAGE fructose dose is 70 grams per day which exceeds the recommend limit by 300 percent.



So please BE CAREFUL with your fruit consumption. You simply MUST understand that because HFCS is so darn cheap, it is added to virtually every processed food. Even if you consumed no soda or fruit, it is very easy to exceed 25 grams of hidden fructose in your diet.



If you are a raw food advocate, have a pristine diet, and exercise very well, then you could be the exception that could exceed this limit and stay healthy as you likely do not have insulin resistance. But if you are overweight, have high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol than it is best to limit your fructose, even from fruits.



It would also be wise to avoid fruit juices and sugary fruit drink concoctions brought to you by the processed food industry that separate the natural fruit sugars from the pectin and fiber they are bound to in nature, creating more or less a sugar grenade that hits your stomach and spikes your blood sugar and insulin.



Then you have the issue of dissociated methanol from any processed fruit drinks that I have written about previously as it can serve as a catalyst for autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis.



Tropical Fruits

The featured article correctly points out that the five tropical fruits discussed have some rather remarkably great qualities, especially the once vilified coconut, which I will go into much more detail about below.



One thing to keep in mind about these amazing fruits -- you want to always eat them unprocessed (or minimally processed in the case of coconut oil), and without any added sugars!



So, for instance, a mangosteen/coconut fruit drink that's marketed as an anti-oxidant rich sports recovery beverage is not something you want to ever consider using. Please stick to the whole, natural, organic fruit itself and always properly wash your fruits to remove any residual pesticides they may have come from the growing fields. Buying organic fruits will cut down on pesticide levels, but they can still harbor harmful bacteria.



Coconut – The Tree of Life

Referred to as the tree of life in the Philippines, because they use literally every part of the plant, the coconut (specifically coconut oil) was recently vilified in the US in 1994 when it was linked to movie theater popcorn and called an artery clogger. It has also been vilified for about the last 60 years by the vegetable seed oil industry. But the problem is the health threat is related to partially hydrogenated coconut oil, which researchers have in fact linked to health problems for a long time.

Virgin unrefined coconut oil has none of the problems associated with hydrogenated oils; in fact, unrefined coconut oil is now linked to a number of impressive health benefits and according to the article above:



"Virgin coconut oil, which has not been chemically treated, is a different thing in terms of a health risk perspective. And maybe it isn't so bad for you after all."



Actually, virgin unrefined coconut oil is incredibly good for you!



What the New York Times is just discovering now has been known all along to anyone who has studied the health of those who live in native tropical cultures, where coconut has been a primary dietary staple for thousands of years.



Back in the 1930s, Dr. Weston Price found South Pacific Islanders whose diets were high in coconut to be healthy and trim, despite high dietary fat, and heart disease was virtually non-existent. Similarly, in 1981, researchers studying two Polynesian communities for whom coconut was the primary caloric energy source found them to have excellent cardiovascular health and fitness.



Where were all the clogged arteries and heart attacks from eating all of this "evil" saturated fat? Obviously, coconut oil was doing nothing to harm the heart health of these islanders. Isn't it about time that America discovers the heart health benefits of coconut oil? Heart disease has been on the rise for the last 60 years in America, the same 60 years that coconut oil has been vilified!



Coincidence?



I don't think so.



Also cooking with coconut oils is far better than using polyunsaturated fats, which include common vegetable oils such as corn, soy, safflower, sunflower and canola.



Why?



1.Cooking your food in omega-6 vegetable oils produces a variety of very toxic chemicals, as well as forming trans-fats. Frying destroys the antioxidants in oil, actually oxidizing the oil, which causes even worse problems for your body than trans-fats.

2.Most vegetable oils are GM (genetically modified), including more than 90 percent of soy, corn and canola oils.

3.Vegetable oils contribute to the overabundance of damaged omega-6 fats in your diet, throwing offyour omega-6 to omega-3 ratio. Nearly everyone in Western society consumes far too many omega-6 fats -- about 100 times more than a century ago -- and insufficient omega 3 fats, which contributes to numerous chronic degenerative diseases.

There's actually just one oil that is stable enough to withstand the heat of cooking, and that's coconut oil.



Coconut water, on the other hand, according to the article above, is a better sports hydration drink than ANY of the commercially available sugary sports drinks, and is both sterile and an isotonic beverage, meaning it has the same electrolyte consistency of human blood, which enabled medics in the Pacific Theater in World War II to use it as an emergency substitute for blood plasma.



Doesn't drinking a beverage with the same electrolyte balance as human blood sound like a good idea? It does to me. It's also better to get your coconut water straight out of a young, green coconut and avoid the commercially available products on the market, which I consider to be a processed food.



Coconut oil also has an immune boosting fat called lauric acid and has been shown to be helpful in improving metabolic rates to facilitate weight loss. Personally I believe that unless you are allergic to coconuts you should find ways to regularly use it in your diet. I typically use one to two teaspoons a day in my morning breakfast Miracle Whey breakfast shake.



Avacado – the Low Fructose Fruit

Avocados are a very low fructose fruit and only have two grams of carbohydrates per avocado. According to www.whfoods.com:



"Avocados are native to Central and South America and have been cultivated in these regions since 8,000 B.C. In the mid-17th century, they were introduced to Jamaica and spread through the Asian tropical regions in the mid-1800s. Cultivation in United States, specifically in Florida and California, began in the early 20th century. While avocados are now grown in most tropical and subtropical countries, the major commercial producers include the United States (Florida and California), Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Colombia."



The avocado has many health benefits associated with it, and may even help to protect the liver from damage, according to research from Japan:



Researchers fed avocado and 22 other fruits to laboratory rats. Have more than twice as much potassium than a banana.

The rats were then given D-galactosamine, a substance that causes liver damage by interfering with cell synthesis and results in cell death. Promote heart health

The rats fed the avocado obtained the least amount of liver damage. Have anti-inflammatory properties

Are rich in monounsaturated fat, which is easily burned for energy. Are a good source of "healhy" fat in your diet





My recommendation, as with all foods in general is not to eat avocados every day, as this may lead to food allergies. But avocados as part of your balanced, natural foods diet are a great source of healthy fat.



Also, avocados are one of the safest fruits to buy conventionally grown because its thick shell protects the inner fruit from building up pesticides, and it has been rated as one of the best commercial crops in terms of pesticide exposure.



Longan Berry, the Chinese Miracle Fruit

Native to China, this yellowish-brown berry with a leathery protective shell is closely related to the lychee fruit (but not as juicy) and is touted for its ability to neutralize poisons. In fact, in Vietnam, where it's known as "dragon's eye", it's been used as an antidote to snake bites for centuries.



According to the article above, longan berries:



"… have long been said by Asian herbalists to have relaxing properties, making them the perfect snack to enjoy to lower your stress levels. It is also said to have anti-cancer, antioxidant, and liver-protective properties. The longan contains high levels of iron, potassium, and large amounts of vitamins A and C. Finding them in a form other than fresh at your local market may be tough, but dried and canned longan are also available."



These berries can be found at Asian markets throughout North America.



Mangoes – A Great Source of Vitamins A and C

According to the article above, a single mango:



"…will contain half of your recommended daily allowance of both Vitamin A and Vitamin C, as well as some B-Vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, polyphenols, beta-carotene."



And according to http://www.lifemojo.com:

"About 4000 BC ago, the wild mango originated in the foothills of the Himalayas of India and Burma, and about 40 to 60% of these trees still grow in India and Southeast Asia. Also known as Mangifera Indica, this exotic fruit belongs to the family of Anacardiaceae. Though native to Southern and Southeast Asia, the fruit is now also grown in Central and South America, Africa and the Arabian Peninsula also. Today there are over 1,000 different varieties of mangos throughout the world.



One thing to watch out for with mangos, however, is they pack a caloric wallop. For every 100 grams of mango, you're going to get 75 calories.



Mangosteen

Mangosteen is a fruit found in tropical countries throughout Asia -- Thailand, India, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. It also grows reasonably well in areas such as Hawaii and tropical Northern Australia. It is not a fruit found widely in the supermarkets of North America, but it can be found in Asian markets and can be purchased here on the Internet.



According the above source, mangosteen can cause death in cancer cells. This is taken from studies showing that the xanthones in mangosteens have been shown to destroy cancer cells. Research in this area needs to be expanded on, and I definitely do not recommend you drink any mangosteen concoctions that are loaded with added sugar which actually can fuel cancer cell growth.



Also according to one scientific study on the effect of xanthones in mangosteen:



"The mangosteen rind, leaves and bark have been used as folk medicine for thousands of years. The thick mangosteen rind has been and is used for treating catarrh, cystitis, diarrhea, dysentery, eczema, fever, intestinal ailments, pruritis and other skin ailments. The mangosteen leaves are also used by some natives in teas and for diarrhea, dysentery, fever, and thrush. It is also known that concentrates of mangosteen bark can be used for genito-urinary afflictions and stomatosis."