High blood pressure, or hypertension, affects about 1 in 3 U.S. adults—an estimated 68 million—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Also referred to as the ‘Silent Killer’ because of its lack of symptoms, high blood pressure can lead to heart attack and stroke, so it’s crucial to keep your blood pressure in check. Let Noni Be ThyMedicine (for Healthy Blood Pressure)

If blood pressure levels are high, sometimes simple lifestyle changes, such as exercise and diet, can help to bring levels down to a healthy range. Stress and tension can exacerbate your blood pressure. So stress-relieving and relaxation techniques such as meditation will also help. For other people, blood pressure medication together with nutritional supplements can help.

NONI TO THE RESCUE

Morinda citrifolia, commonly known as noni, is assumed to have originated in Southeast Asia and was distributed throughout the Pacific islands by natural and man-made means. It is believed that approximately 2,000 years ago, ancient peoples of French Polynesia brought the noni plant with them as a source of food and medicine when they colonized the islands of the South Pacific. Written documentation about the use of noni as food dates back to the late 1700s when Captain James Cook observed that the fruit was consumed in Tahiti. Subsequent publications indicate that noni fruit was commonly eaten in Fiji, Roratonga, Samoa, Australia, and India. In addition, the roots and bark of the noni plant were scraped and pounded to form a yellow or red dye used to color tapa cloths and clothing.

Doctors have recently discovered that noni, which we have reported on for helping to treat pain, sports injuries, diabetes, cancer, skin conditions and mood, as well as offer health solutions for pets, may also help maintain healthy blood pressure, leaving us to ask ourselves this question: What can’t this magical fruit do?

Here’s one report that sheds light on the ability of noni to help maintain healthy high blood pressure. For nearly four years, aerospace scientist Chuck Jorgensen, PhD, age 65, of Palo Alto, California, has been successfully using Hawaiian Health Ohana’s Noni Fruit Leather to maintain healthy blood pressure—after suffering for years from hypertension.

Coming from a Danish background, Dr. Jorgensen was intrigued when he came across some studies on noni’s benefits on blood pressure specifically for Scandinavians. “I studied herbal medicine a lot, and it is very useful to look at the genetic differences in how people respond to different medicines. I did a lot of research on what worked.”

However, the liquid and powdered noni products Dr. Jorgensen first tried did not work. It wasn’t until he took a vacation to the Garden Isle of Kauai and tried noni fruit leather from Hawaiian Health Ohana that he discovered the true healing power of noni.

“I tried noni before but with absolutely no effect…the liquid seemed particularly poor—I think the pasteurization that it goes through had been responsible for destroying whatever the active element was that actually was supposed to work. The powder was a bit better but often had other parts of the noni rather than the fruit so it was of dubious strength, hard to calibrate and not as easy to eat larger amounts.”

Like almost everyone who visits Hawaii, Dr. Jorgensen discovered a wonderful whole food supplement called Noni Fruit Leather that noni pioneer Steve Frailey developed in order to capture the power of the raw fruit (which is highly perishable).

“I was in Kauai on vacation and picked up a pack of Hawaiian Health Ohana Noni Fruit Leather—I thought what the heck, might as well try it out. At that time I was sitting with a blood pressure that was unpleasantly high shall we say, 185/95. I took the noni that evening and was really startled because the next morning I was at 150/90 and by the day after that I was down into the 140s/85. I thought something is really working here! Whatever is going on in the processing there is a big difference between the liquid and dry powdered noni I had tried previously and something that is in a more natural state.”

SUPERIOR WHOLE FOOD

Indeed, many products today advertise they contain noni, but they use miniscule portions. Well, we have news. Noni is best used as a raw whole food, even topically, and not as an extract. Don’t expect to receive great health results where noni is only a minor component. Noni works best alone. Derived from 100 percent freshly processed raw whole food noni, Hawaiian Health Ohana’s Noni Fruit Leather retains every bit of the phytochemical power that people are seeking from noni.

“I take ¼ amount of the fruit leather package each night. I’m now down around 132/80, and it’s actually been lower than that. I’ve been taking Hawaiian Health Ohana noni fruit leather for nearly 4 years, and it works!

“The biggest thing I’ve noticed about the noni is that it seems to drive down the systolic blood pressure whereas traditional medications that are often used to treat high blood pressure don’t do a very good job in controlling systolic.”

WHAT THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE SAYS

Actually, articles on the use of noni for healthy blood pressure date back more than 50 years with one of the first articles appearing in Presse Med., a French medical journal. Dang Van Ho of Vietnam demonstrated that a total extract of the Noni roots has a hypotensive effect.

Meantime, Dr. N.K. Moorthy and coworkers found that an ethanol extract of the noni root lowered the blood pressure in an anesthetized dog. Dr. J. Youngken’s research team determined that using a hot water extract of noni roots also lowered blood pressure. A Hawaiian physician reported that noni fruit juice had a diuretic effect, also a key to maintaining healthy blood pressure (by lowering sodium levels in the body).

In the December 2002 issue of Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, researchers from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Department of Pathology, also noted its hypotensive and antiinflammatory effects.

Knowing that the plant works to maintain healthy blood pressure, researchers have also begun to explain how and why noni works. In the January 2010 issue of BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine the possible modes of action for its antispasmodic, vasodilator and cardio-suppressant effects were studied “to rationalize its medicinal use in gut and cardiovascular disorders.” These results suggest that the spasmolytic and vasodilator effects of noni are mediated possibly through blockade of voltage-dependent calcium channels and release of intracellular calcium, which may explain the medicinal use of Morinda citrifolia in diarrhea and hypertension.

In the June 2004 issue of the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, researchers at the Food Science Department, Universiti Putra Malaysia, studied the vasodilatory actions of nine edible tropical plant extracts. These plants exhibited more than a 50 percent relaxing effect on aortic ring preparations and appear to involve several biochemical mediators, including nitric oxide, prostanoids, and endothelium-dependent hyperpolarizing factors (EDHFs). “This study demonstrates that many edible plants common in Asian diets to possess potential health benefits, affording protection at the vascular endothelium level.”

And noni helps other areas of heart health, according to the August 2010 issue of Lipids in Health and Disease. Noni was especially helpful when cholesterol levels were high and out of balance and “caused reduction in total cholesterol and triglyceride levels.” In fact, in high-fat, dietaryinduced dyslipidemia, noni “caused significant reduction in total cholesterol, triglyceride, low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), atherogenic index and TC/HDL ratio.”

There are a number of approaches to maintaining healthy blood pressure—and remember you can use whole foods to complement your medication (check with your doctor, of course). Whether you choose to use only natural means or a combination of natural supplements and foods and prescription medication, noni fruit leather makes sense. It made all the difference for Chuck Jorgensen.

Hawaiian Health Ohana’s Noni Fruit Leather is raw food, not juice, for greater potency.

“If you’re going to take medicine, you might as well have food as medicine,” says Dr. Jorgensen.

Resources

Hawaiian Health Ohana Noni Fruit Leather is available at health food stores nationwide and at www.real-noni.com. Call 877-417-7674.

REFERENCES

Dang-Van-Ho. [Treatment and prevention of hypertension and its cerebral complications by total root extracts of Morinda citrifolia]. Presse Med. 1955 Nov 2;63(72):1478.

Youngken HW, Jenkins H J, Butler CL. Studies on Morinda citrifolia L. II. J Am Pharm Assoc 1960; 49: 271-3.

Moorthy NK, Reddy GS. Preliminary phytochemical and pharmacological study of Morinda citrifolia, Linn. Antiseptic 1970; 67: 167-71.

Youngken HW. A study of the root of Morinda citrifolia Linn, I. J Am Pharm Assoc 1958; 47: 162-5.

Davison C. Hawaiian medicine. The Queen’s Hospital Bulletin with Palama Clinic Section 1927; 4: 2-5.

Asahina AY, Ebesu JSM, Ichinotsubo D, Tongson J, Hokama Y. Effect of okadaic acid (OA) and Noni fruit extraction in the synthesis of tumor necrosis factor- (TNF-) by peripheral blood mononuclear (PBN) cells in vitro. The Proceeding of the International Symposium of Ciguatera and Marine Natural Products; 1994. p 197-205.

Wang MY, West BJ, Jensen CJ, Nowicki D, Su C, Palu AK, Anderson G. Morinda citrifolia (Noni): a literature review and recent advances in Noni research. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2002 Dec;23(12):1127-41.

Gilani AH, Mandukhail SU, Iqbal J, Yasinzai M, Aziz N, Khan A, -Rehman NU. Antispasmodic and vasodilator activities of Morinda citrifolia root extract are mediated through blockade of voltage dependent calcium channels. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2010 Jan 13;10(1):2. [Epub ahead of print]

Lipids Health Dis 2010 Aug 20;9:88. Studies on antidyslipidemic effects of Morinda citrifolia (Noni) fruit, leaves and root extracts. Mandukhail SU, Aziz N, Gilani AH.

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