MILK THISTLE (Silybum marianum)

Supplement: milk thistle seed Potency: 500mg Quantity: 100 capsules Other ingredients: gelatin Price: £5.50 Click here for the order page Contraindications: milk thistle is not recommended for use during pregnancy or breastfeeding.

Further information on Milk Thistle

Habitat: Milk thistle is native to the Mediterranean region of Europe, southern Russia and north Africa. Today it can be found growing in many areas of the world, as it is naturalised throughout most of Europe, North America and Australia.

Characteristics and properties: Milk thistle is most well known as a remedy for liver problems and has been renowned in European folk medicine as a liver tonic for more than two thousand years. Milk thistle's excellent reputation for this use has developed because it nutritionally supports the liver's ability to maintain normal liver function and because it's shown positive effects in treating nearly every known form of liver disease, including cirrhosis, hepatitis, jaundice, necroses, and liver damage due to drug and alcohol abuse. It achieves this due to its ability to inhibit the factors responsible for causing liver damage, coupled with the fact that it has a regenerative effect on the liver as it stimulates the body's production of new liver cells to replace old and damaged ones.

The substance which gives milk thistle these hepato-protective effects is a bioflavonoid complex found in its seeds known as silymarin, a name which has been well known in Europe for some time and is becoming equally well known in the US and other countries. Silymarin is an antioxidant and free radical scavenger which is more potent than vitamins C and E in providing protection against the damaging free radicals and preventing the formation of leukotrienes. Silymarin also increases the liver's content of GSH (glutathione) which is a substance required in liver cells for detoxifying many potentially damaging hormones, drugs and chemicals. Silymarin has also demonstrated a membrane stabilising action, which inhibits or prevents lipid peroxidation, and it seems to alter the structure of the outer wall membranes of liver cells, preventing the penetration of toxins into the liver, thereby also allowing the liver to more effectively process and release toxins that have already built up. Even more impressively, silymarin stimulates cell protein synthesis in the liver, which stimulates the formation of new liver cells and enables a damaged liver to regenerate tissue more rapidly. It also seems to have the ability to block fibrosis, a process that contributes to the eventual development of cirrhosis in persons with inflammatory liver conditions secondary to alcohol abuse or hepatitis, an action which makes milk thistle possibly helpful to persons with chronic hepatitis C.

With all that the liver must process in our daily lives, it probably needs as much help as possible to cope with its day to day work and the detrimental effects of environmental toxins, which enter the body through food, water, air and skin, not to mention alcohol and drugs and the modern plagues of pesticides and industrial pullution. Milk thistle is therefore one of the best examples we have of preventative medicine, remarkably being able to detoxify and soothe an overburdened or inflamed liver while also being able to strengthen and rejuvenate a weak or deficient liver. This has made milk thistle one of the most intensely investigated medicinal herbs as much research is done and many clinical studies are conducted to try and ascertain the extent of its action, all the more relevant and important when it is considered that in modern times liver disease is no longer only associated with alcoholism, but is recognised as a leading cause of death across the whole of society.

Because milk thistle is so powerful in aiding liver function, and greatly enhances the liver's task of cleansing the blood, it can help with many skin problems that result or are aggravated when blood is cleansed ineffectively, such as acne, eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis. Milk thistle also has a direct action on the skin, as it has a demulcent quality, allowing it to soften and moisten the skin and reduce any skin irritations and inflammations. As a demulcent, it also soothes and moistens the mucus membranes, relieves kidney and bladder irritations and gall bladder complaints, and is useful in treating pleurisy, colitis and diseases of the spleen. It also acts as a mild laxative due to its ability to increase bile secretion and flow in the intestinal tract, has been known since ancient times for anti-hermorragic and anti-spasmodic peroperties, and in recent ties has become much studied for potential cholesterol lowering and cancer prevention properties. Milk thistle also contains phytoestrogens, which have made it a traditional galactogogue and a remedy for hormone imbalance in women, and more recently an ingredient in breast enhancement formulations. It is also a folk remedy for treating depression, indigestion, varicose veins and snakebites.

Culinary uses: Milk thistle used to be highly regarded as a food and was commonly grown in gardens for that purpose, the flower heads being particularly popular as they were boiled and eaten like artichokes. The shoots are still popular in some countries today and are very palatable and nutritious, generally being boiled and eaten like cabbage. The leaves are also utilised as food, formerly being baked in pies, but today serving as a salad green and also as a cooked vegetable, the taste comparing favorably to spinach.

History and curiosities: Milk thistle was well known in the ancient world and Pliny the Elder stated in the first century that the plant was excellent for carrying off bile and restoring liver function, while Dioscorides extolled its virtues as a remedy for snakebites. Early Christian tradition dedicated this renowned herb to Mary, calling it mary thistle or marian thistle, and this name is still recognised today in the plant's modern botanical name of silybum marianum. In Europe milk thistle's reputation soared over the centuries and in 1597 a practicing herbalist, Gerarde, said that it was one of the best remedies for treating melancholy and skin complaints. In 1650 Nicholas Culpeper cited its use for removing obstructions of the liver and spleen and recommended it for the treatment of jaundice. By the eighteenth century milk thistle had become much documented as the standard treatment for any kind of liver ailment or spleen disorder and by the twentieth century it had become recommended for female problems, colon disorders and as a digestive aid. By now almost every European pharmaceutical establishment listed milk thistle as an important medical treatment. In recent decades, many of milk thistle's traditional uses have declined, but it's use as a liver tonic and herbal remedy for liver disease is now more prominent than ever. It also has an important role as a antidote for poison, especially the poison of the amanita or deathcap mushroom. Eating this mushroom is known to result in severe liver damage and anyone who doesn't immediately die usually requires a liver transplant to survive. Miraculously, the silymarin in milk thistle neutralises the poison and is effective even when taken after the mushrooms have been eaten. Milk thistle is kept on hand in German hospitals to be used in emergencies for treating otherwise fatal deathcap poisonings.