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Milk Thistle has the advantage of being a potent antioxidant;
it assists in caring for and revitalizing your liver, and
may disrupt recirculation of poisons. Long believed to be
the natural world’s leading herbal liver-health aid,
Milk Thistle has been used as a liver tonic in Europe for
centuries. According to some studies, it can stop and even
undo early phase liver injury in recovering alcoholics.
Milk Thistle has definite protective benefits for liver tissue,
and it is laden with silymarin, an antioxidant flavonoid compound.
It defends and restores the liver in most illnesses such as
Cirrhosis, Jaundice, Hepatitis and Cholangitis. Anybody who
is under pressure, uses alcohol, recreational drugs, prescription
medicine (especially antibiotics), or lives in our contemporary
era of pesticides, environmental contaminants and toxic waste
can profit from this amazing herb.
One of the extraordinary traits of Milk Thistle is that if
your liver is overloaded and sluggish it will clean and detoxify
it, and if it is weak it will make it stronger. Detoxification
is a continuing process that takes place in your liver, kidneys,
intestines, lymph glands, and blood, and in every cell. Your
liver is not capable of totally cleansing your body of poisons,
especially if the volume is high; or else its energy will
be used up processing and sorting the incoming contaminants
rather than getting rid of them.
Conventional medication has little to offer those with liver
illnesses. However, Milk Thistle’s value against liver
ailments has been confirmed in more than 100 thorough scientific
tests. Here is a short outline of what these studies have
revealed:
• Alcoholic Cirrhosis. Milk Thistle
extract significantly reduces the death rate of persons afflicted
with Alcoholic Cirrhosis of the liver.
• Death cap mushroom poisoning. In
one German hospital test, 60 successive people with mushroom
poisoning were given intravenous Milk Thistle extract. None
died.
• Hepatitis. Milk Thistle extract shortens
the recovery time for Hepatitis by an average of two weeks.
• Gallstones. Milk Thistle extract
helps to prevent gallstones.
• Liver function tests. Milk Thistle
extract normalizes liver function letting those who must take
liver-harming medicine do so with reduced danger of liver
injury.
• Occupational toxic chemical exposure.
Milk Thistle extract renormalizes liver function tests in
factory employees who manufacture pesticides, and in those
exposed to poisonous heavy metals such as lead and cadmium.
• Psoriasis. Some European studies
propose that Milk Thistle extract may even aid the healing
of the flaky skin patches of psoriasis.1
Though it is now cultivated all through the temperate world,
milk thistle is indigenous to the Kashmir region of India
and Pakistan. Milk thistles grow as annual or biennial plants.
Only two species are recognized at present: Silybum eberneum,
branded as the Silver Milk Thistle, the Elephant Thistle or
the Ivory Thistle and Silybum marianum, the Blessed
Milk Thistle, which has a quantity of other common names.
The Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder wrote that the plant’s
cloudy liquid was good for “carrying off bile”
in the first century, and Milk Thistle has been used as a
traditional herbal remedy since then. How does Milk Thistle
work?
1. It fuels protein production, which is a factor in renewal
and replacement of liver cells.
2. It assists in shielding the liver against contamination
by blocking the absorption of poisons.
3. It slows down the creation of inflammatory matter that
contributes to liver deterioration.
4. It helps the liver break down toxins.
5. Milk Thistle is a potent antioxidant.
6. It boosts intracellular levels of glutathione, a substance
essential to detoxification.2
US study of herbal medication declined significantly with
the growth of the modern pharmaceutical industry. However,
many drugs used today have considerable liver toxicity. If
you have been medicated with antibiotics, cortisone, chemotherapy,
anti-seizure medicine, or anti-inflammatory drugs, or if you
have had other liver troubles, you should consider a course
of Milk Thistle. A standardized (70 or 80% silybin) product
works best.
Loose stools may occasionally occur when you take Milk Thistle.
Get in touch with your doctor or pharmacist if you observe
other effects. Check with your doctor prior to using Milk
Thistle if you have liver or stomach/intestinal problems.
Caution is recommended if you have diabetes or alcohol dependence
as fluid preparations of Milk Thistle may contain sugar and/or
alcohol.
Milk Thistle has no contraindications and no dosage time limits,
and research on it appears to be growing. In a 1989 study,
87 patients with cirrhosis received 140 mg of silymarin (Milk
Thistle extract) three times a day for an average of 41 months.
No side effects were observed. The present theory concerning
mode of activity is that it supports liver well-being in two
chief ways. First, it changes the outer cell membrane in such
a way as to stop diffusion of damaging matter to the interior
of cells. Second, it arouses the action of nucleolar polymerase
A, resulting in a boost in ribosomal protein production, which
fuels the regenerative capacity of the liver and the creation
of new liver cells.
The liver is necessary to healthy digestion and the production
of bile, an alkaline fluid that is particularly useful in
the absorption of fats. Bile manufacture and fat metabolism
get sluggish when the liver is not running at its most favorable
level. Studies demonstrate that Milk Thistle may perk up low
energy and motivation in addition to general happiness by
increasing blood flow.
1 Source:
Milk Thistle: Nature’s Liver Protector by Michael Castleman
2 Source: Milk Thistle: The Herbal Wonder an article
from PetTribune written by Dr. Russell Swift, DVM
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