The Milk Thistle -part of the genus Silybum is in fact one of the flowering plants that are cousins to daisies and is native along the coast of the Mediterranean from Europe through the Middle East and into North Africa. This stately flowering thistle gets its name from both its milky sap and from the white spotty look of its leaves.
For over twenty centuries, native healers have utilized milk thistle and its extracts as hepatic tonics and research has been run since the 1970’s. Silymarin is really a flavinoid complex that has been extracted from the milk thistle seeds. The name “milk thistle” is frequently used interchangeably with “silymarin. “Silymarin is identified as a substance that can help to guard the liver from toxins and toxic damage and also help to improve its functioning. Milk thistle has been found to treat chronic hepatitis (triggering long term inflammation of the liver), cirrhosis and toxin-induced liver damage. It’s even utilized to help shield the liver from serious damage in circumstances of poisoning by the “death cap” mushroom (Amanita phalloides) and in the case of gallbladder disorders.
The current research indicates that silymarin and its extracts are able to both restore and actually prevent damage to the liver caused by drugs and other toxins. A team of factory workers who had been exposed to vapors from toxic chemicals for many years were given either milk thistle extract (80% silymarin) or placebo for 30 days. The sample taking the silymarin showed significant improvement in liver function tests and platelet counts vs the placebo group.
Multi year users of psychotropic drugs are known to suffer damage to their liver brought on by oxidation of the lipids which create free radicals and trigger many of the chronic diseases we tend to associate with growing older. Studies have been carried out on patients getting these types of drug and those patients in the group who were treated with silymarin had less liver damage from from lipid peroxidation than the group who were given a placebo instead.
In 2009 a study was published in the journal “Cancer”. In this research which was conducted on fifty children undergoing chemotherapy, milk thistle showed promise in lessening the destructive side effects that chemotherapy had on their livers.
Silymarin is currently being studied to evaluate its ability to:
- Reduce insulin resistance in men and women with cirrhosis and type 2 diabetes
- Slow the growth of cancer cells in cervical, prostate and breast cancers.
- Reduce cholesterol
- Increase liver operation in active hepatitis patients.
- Prevent or reduce injury to the kidneys caused by diabetes.
- Protect the liver from harm brought about by chemotherapy.
Milk thistle is just one of the ingredients found in the Original Glutathione Formula from Dr Rob Keller