I find it surprising this particular medical Doctor chose to use
Hawaiian Noni in his study
instead of Tahitian noni. The surprise comes from the fact that I
thought all the Doctors
support TAHITIAN NONI juice or at least that is what a TNI
distributor told me.

I am happy to see Hawaiian Noni being used in a creditable medical
study and getting the
positive results.


--- In NoniNews@yahoogroups.com, "wilsonc@H..." <manalishi2001@y...>
wrote:
> Noni shows cancer promise
> A study by UH researchers explores
> the plant's possible pain-relieving
> benefits to patients
>
> By Helen Altonn
> haltonn@s...
> Cancer Research Center of Hawaii researchers are getting reports
> from patients taking noni that they have less pain that interferes
> with activities.
>
> "That is exciting to us. It may be reducing the pain people
> experience, but we can't say. It's too early for a definitive
> conclusion," said Carolyn Gotay about the center's study of the
> fruit's medical value.
>
> Dr. Brian Issell, internist, oncologist and clinical sciences
> program director at the University of Hawaii cancer center, is
> principal investigator of the study, which began in 2001.
>
> The noni plant was used in traditional healing throughout Polynesia
> and is being promoted worldwide for all kinds of health problems
and
> diseases.
>
> "It's a $2 billion product with incredible commercialization,"
> Issell said. "We need to know if it helps more than harms people."
>
> His study is the first to look at the effects of noni on people and
> see if it does what ads claim.
>
> "We've seen pretty much improvements across the board when we look
> statistically, but these are early days," Issell said. "It's not
> telling us it's going to help more than harm people, but what dose
> we will test in the future."
>
> The team, including Faith Inoshita, clinical research nurse, is
> trying to complete the first phase of the study to find the right
> dose that will be effective for people, Issell said. Then the
> researchers will move to the next phase comparing that dose of noni
> a placebo.
>
> Different doses of freeze-dried extract of ripe noni from the
Indian
> mulberry plant are given to groups of five patients. Participants
> have advanced cancer that no other treatment would help.
>
> Capsules are increased gradually from four a day to 24 and the
> patients are followed to see the effects.
>
> "We have been seeing increasing improvement in quality of life
> measures," Issell said. "It's very interesting. We're getting
> improvement at higher dose levels compared to a lower dose."
>
> Dr. Adrian Franke, associate specialist, and Laurie Custer,
research
> associate, are analyzing the ingredients of noni, as well as blood
> and urine samples from patients, to see what chemicals may have
anti-
> cancer activity.
>
> "We're measuring different markers," Issell said. "Once we have
> something we can feel confident about, we will use it to
standardize
> noni because there are hundreds of different products now from
> juice, with additional things to mask the dose."
>
> Noni Maui is providing fruit grown on the Big Island for the study,
> which requires a consistent supply, Issell said: "We have quite a
> lot of capsules and will continue up to 40 (per day) if we need to."
>
> The first phase of the study began with National Institutes of
> Health funding and it is continuing with support from the Hawaii
> Community Foundation, Issell said.
>
> He said the issue with cancer drugs is to find the maximum
tolerated
> dose that's most likely to have an anti-cancer effect.
>
> "Here, we haven't found the maximum-tolerated dose," he said. "We
> have to find the optimal quality of life sustaining dose. It's a
> complex question."
>
> Patients fill out questionnaires about how they're feeling, how
> their pain is, their fatigue and how they function.
>
> Gotay said patients are still tolerating the doses with no side
> effects. "We haven't observed any worsening of the quality of life.
> In fact, even though these patients tend to have advanced disease,
> their quality of life has pretty much maintained steady or gotten
> better in some cases."
>
> She said they're looking at the well-being of the patients from
many
> aspects and "people are holding their own."
>
> The participants "are amazingly committed," Gotay said. "They have
> serious conditions and high hopes for treatment and they're very
> eager to take their pills. They're very conscientious about it.
> They're trying to help us and themselves, too, and future patients.
>
> "It's a long ways from even identifying, say it were to work, why
it
> works, what are the active ingredients," Gotay said.
>
> Noni is a substance that hasn't followed drug lab development, so
it
> isn't known exactly what's in it, how it works on the body or what
> kind of patients it would make a difference in, she said.
>
> For instance, she asked, "Would it be effective in people with
> earlier stage disease? We can't test that in the (present) study."
>
> Issell gets inquiries about noni from all over the world, Gotay
> pointed out: "That's partly why we are so cautious. We want to make
> sure (of the results)."
>
> Franke and his team is looking at how the ingredients affect
> different systems of the body, Gotay said. "There are so many
> different possibilities of what might be going on."
>
> He gave different doses of noni to healthy volunteers -- Cancer
> Research Center employees -- and drew their blood over an
eight-hour
> period to see how noni processed in healthy people to compare with
> cancer patients.
>
> For more information about the noni study, call the clinical trials
> unit, 586-2979.