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Milk Thistle - A Great Friend For Your Liver
Your liver plays a major role in health because of the hundreds of things it does in and for your body. The liver helps with digestion because it produces bile to break down fat, while it helps metabolize carbohydrates and proteins. It creates important nutrients and can store them for years, and after a meal, the liver converts amino acids to glucose, proteins, or urea.
Your liver produces albumin to help with water balance, proteins crucial to the immune system, coagulation factors and globulin for hemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood. The liver also produces cholesterol.
As a filter, your liver works hard to break down from food additives, alcohol, pollution, organophosphates, pharmaceuticals and other unfriendly substances that constantly bombard us.
To serve as a liver helper in today’s toxic world we can rely on Milk Thistle.
Milk Thistle has been used for liver problems for over 2,000 years, and that’s why it is the liver-protecting herb of choice. In ancient Rome, Pliny suggested that it carries off bile. English herbalist Culpepper suggested it was good for jaundice and for removing liver obstructions.
All parts of the milk thistle are said to be edible, and has long been used for food in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. Young leaves can be trimmed of prickles and added to salads or steamed for a vegetable. They taste a little bitter and astringent and sort of get gummy as you chew.
The roots can be prepared and cooked like salsify or eaten raw. Young flower buds can be steamed and eaten like those of the globe artichoke, a close relative.
Like many members of the daisy family, the scorched roots and seeds of milk thistle have been used as a coffee substitute, the seed cake cattle fodder, and the seed oil for food or lubrication.
Milk thistle has been used for centuries to help support the liver and gall bladder. A key substance found in the seeds is called Silymarin which is a “group of flavonoids that is beneficial to the liver’s ability to effectively work with a myriad of impurities. Flavonoids are antioxidants.
Silymarin prevents free radical damage to the liver by acting as an antioxidant. In research Silymarin has been found to be at least 10 times more potent in antioxidant activity than vitamin E.
Using properly prepared and high quality Milk thistle products you find it is helpful for preventing and eliminating gall stones; reducing cholesterol levels while improving the “good” kind; in cirrhosis and psoriasis; for hepatitis, diabetes, fatty liver and chemical exposure. Milk thistle is a good companion when you are getting chemo or taking a wide array of prescription drugs.
Milk thistle is believed to possess very little toxicity. Animal studies have not shown any negative effects even when high doses were administered over a long period of time. There is a low incidence of side effects, limited mainly to mild gastrointestinal disturbance.
Used extensively as a food, Milk thistle is believed to be safe for pregnant or nursing women. However, safety in young children, pregnant or nursing women, and individuals with severe renal disease has not been formally established.
No drug interactions are known. However, one report has noted that silybinin (a constituent of silymarin) can inhibit a bacterial enzyme called beta-glucuronidase, which plays a role in the activity of certain drugs, such as oral contraceptives. This could reduce their effectiveness.
The milk thistle is part of one of the largest plant families, the Asteraceae, or Compositae. This family includes everything from lettuce to sunflowers. People with allergy to members of this family (Daisy) are cautioned in its use.
For medicinal purposes are liquid extracts and capsules standardized at 80 percent silymarin. The recommended average daily dose is 200 to 400 milligrams. In some instances, mainly in Europe, intravenous silymarin is used.
Written by Dr. Gayle Eversole ©Natural Notes, 2008 This article was first published in the Latah Eagle and Boomerang
Companion Article Dandelion Marshmallow root and IBS Dialysis with Herbs
Can Your Liver Rejuvenate Your Health?
As your body’s largest internal organ, your liver plays no small role in keeping you healthy. Not only is it critical to proper protein synthesis and healthy digestion, but it’s also the hub of your body’s natural detoxification system—and when your liver is working at its peak, everything from your energy and cholesterol levels to your weight and your complexion will reap the benefits.
But when it’s not? Well… you might be surprised by just how much trouble a sluggish liver can actually cause.
Whether it’s due to less-than-optimal bile flow or an overload of environmental pollutants and free radicals, suboptimal liver function can be a drag on your entire system—leaving you tired, in need of detoxification, maybe even overweight and oversensitive to any number of dietary or chemical insults. So if your body just isn’t feeling up to snuff, launching a liver-supporting supplement regimen could be one of the smartest steps to take.
N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), for example, can help to boost production of the crucial liver-supporting antioxidant glutathione—while trimethylglycine acts as a conjugating agent in the second phase of your body’s detoxification process, during which unwanted chemicals are made water-soluble so that they will have less of an impact on your body and will be easier to excrete via urine or bowel movements.1-3 Research suggests that the botanical Scutellaria baicalensis, on the other hand, can enhance liver health by encouraging healthy cell turnover in this organ.4
No discussion of liver-supporting regimens would be complete without mention of silymarin—an active constituent of milk thistle that can help to replenish your liver’s stores of glutathione and guard against future depletion.5-6 Meanwhile, milk thistle offers the additional benefit of stimulating the production of bile, which plays an essential role in emulsifying and solubilizing certain chemicals allowing for efficient excretion.7 Artichoke plays a similar role, with a number of studies demonstrating this botanical’s ability to support ample bile flow—which is why you’ll find it combined with all of the ingredients above in VRP’s exclusive daily liver formula, HepatoGen™.8
Complementing this formula with an even wider spectrum of nutrients that assist with bile production—such as dandelion root, beet root, phosphatidylcholine, taurine, betaine, inositol, pancreatic lipase, alpha-lipoic acid, vitamin C and magnesium, in addition to silymarin—can also help to ease the burden shouldered by an overworked liver. In combination, these nutrients can help to neutralize the contents of your small intestine, facilitating the release of key digestive enzymes. The additional bile release will also prepare dietary fats and fat-soluble nutrients for absorption, while protecting the intestinal cells and supporting friendly flora found in your GI tract—making this regimen a vital form of natural support for more than just your liver.9-11
Contact us to order your liver and gall bladder health herbs.
1. Banalocha M. Therapeutic potential of N-acetylcysteine in age-related mitochondrial neurodegenerative diseases. Med Hypoth. 2001;56:472-77.
2. Maritim AC, Sanders RA, Watkins JB. Effects of alpha-lipoic acid on biomarkers of oxidative stress in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. J Nutr Biochem. 2003 May;14(5):288-94.
3. Anonymous. Betaine: Monograph. Alternative Medicine Review 2003;8(2):193-196.
4. Zhao Y, Li H, Gao Z, Gong Y, Xu H. Effects of flavonoids extracted from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi on hemin-nitrite-H2O2 induced liver injury. Eur J Pharmacol. 2006 Apr 24;536(1-2):192-9.
5. Campos R, Garido A, Guerra R, et al. Silybin dihemisuccinate protects against glutathione depletion and lipid peroxidation induced by acetaminophen on rat liver. Planta Med. 1989;55:417-419.
6. Valenzuela A, Aspillaga M, Vial S, Guerra R. Selectivity of silymarin on the increase of the glutathione content in different tissues of the rat. Planta Med. 1989;55(5):420-2.
7. Loguercio C, Federico A, Trappoliere M, et al. The effect of a silybin-vitamin e-phospholipid complex on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a pilot study. Dig Dis Sci. 2007;52(9):2387-95.
8. Kraft K. Artichoke leaf extract- recent findings reflecting effects on lipid metabolism, liver and gastrointestinal tracts. Phytomedicine. 1997;4:369-78.
9. Wells CL, Jechorek RP, Erlandsen SL. Inhibitory effects of bile on bacterial invasion of enterocytes: possible mechanism for increased translocation associated with obstructive jaundice. Crit Care Med. 1995;23(2):301-307.
10. Graham DY, Osato MS. H. pylori in the pathogenesis of duodenal ulcer: interaction between duodenal acid load, bile, and H. pylori. Am J Gastroenterol. 2000;95:329-336.
11. Worku ML, Karim QN, Spencer J, Sidebotham RL. Chemotactic response of Helicobacter pylori to human plasma and bile. J Med Microbiol. 2004;53(Pt 8):807-811.
Courtesy: CRP
