Milk Thistle
Useful Milk Thistle (Silymarin)
Milk Thistle
Silybum marianum
Silibinin (INN)
silybin
silymarin
Mushroom Poisoning
Milk thistle most impressed the medical world when G. Vogel, M.D., used it to save lives in the 1970s to counteract mushroom poisoning. A leading milk thistle researcher, Dr. Vogel brought to his clinic 60 people suffering from severe mushroom poisoning. He gave them a compound called silymarin that was extracted from milk thistle. The "results ranged from amazing to spectacular" though most of the people were not treated until a full day after eating Death-Cap mushrooms also called toad stools. If these deadly mushrooms are ingested, they damage the liver and cause almost certain death.Liver
There is strong evidence milk thistle protects the liver from toxins that jeopardize its functioning, anti carcinogenic, inhibits cancer cell growth, guards its cell membranes and high in free radicals. Early studies demonstrate that silymarin reduces liver damage caused by mind-altering drugs. A word of caution here, alcohol, obesity, pot-belly fat, diabetes, and depression all injure the liver. The liver cannot fully recover as long as these lifestyle conditions persist. In other words, no herb-however beneficial substitutes for good health habits.Silymarin increases the liver's content of another important antioxidant, glutathione. Glutathione is needed for the detoxification of cancer-producing agents. Common lifestyle problems like stress, obesity, toxins, medications, too much dietary fat, and an excessive amount of niacin, all deplete the liver of glutathione. A modest supplementation of milk thistle could benefit people affected by such conditions-especially when coupled with the adoption of healthful lifestyle practices. Because the trace mineral selenium is essential to glutathione production, no amount of milk thistle will bolster the liver's glutathione if one's diet contains insufficient selenium.
Gallbladder
Tucked below the lower edge of the liver is the gallbladder. This organ stores and concentrates the bile which the liver produces. Bile is important, because it physically breaks up (emulsifies) fats, making them more susceptible to digestive enzymes. Sometimes the flow of bile from the gall bladder through its duct leading into the intestine becomes sluggish. Some studies suggest that silymarin improves the excretion of bile from the gallbladder, reducing the risk of gallstones.Kidneys
Active ingredients in Milk Thistle protects the kidneys against inflammation, free radical damage and poisons. The drug cisplatin is a very powerful agent in the treatment of testicular cancer. It has, however, devastating side-effects, including damaging the nerves and poisoning the kidneys. An infusion of silibinin given before or after the administration of cisplatin significantly reduced damage to the nephrons of the kidneys. Milk thistle stimulates overall repair in the kidneys by improving their ability to synthesize proteins. Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride Tea by celestial seasonings contains milk thistle. This tea with a bit of tupelo honey makes a pleasant hot drink.
Milk thistle (silymarin) is beneficial to cystic livers. It relieves the associated pain from cystic organs.
Organic herbs are good. Demeter or bio dynamically grown by the methods of Rudolph Steiner
are even better. Pesticides & herbicides are poisons and known as
endocrine disruptors, false estrogens, xenoestrogens, or
estrogen disruptors causing a cystic liver to grow.
Caution: Milk thistle is a diuretic, interfering with Cyclosporine,
as well as other immunosuppressive medications. Follow your doctor's advice.
Anti oxidant effect Milk Thistle
Herb researchers have found antioxidants in milk thistle called flavonoids are some of the most potent liver-protecting substances known. One important function of antioxidants is to protect the liver against damage from heavy metals and other toxic substances in food we eat as well as exposure from the air.Milk Thistle is a liver healing herb. Milk thistle boosts the immune and nervous systems, helping nerve cells produce more neurites keeping cells alive longer, protecting DNA integrity. It destroys free radicals. Free-radical damage has been indicted for at least 50 chronic diseases. Protecting the integrity of the cell's membranes is important. These membranes shield the contents of the cells from free-radical damage.