Health Benefits of Milk Thistle In The Liver

Milk Thistle is a flowering plant of the daisy family, a thistle topped by a prickly purplish flower containing seeds, packed with potent medicinal benefits for the liver. It is a popular natural remedy for liver problems.

Silymarin a complex antioxidant bioflavinoids is the active ingredient in Milk Thistle. This unique antioxidant complex exerts its curative powers by stimulating a regeneration of injured and damaged liver cells, according to studies. Silymarin protects the outer receptor sites of cells, barring toxins from breaking through fatty cell membranes and entering cell interiors. It also neutralizes toxic substances that manage to go inside the cells.

It also has a unique ability to stimulate protein synthesis in liver cells by increasing genetic (DNA and RNA) activity. Additionally, milk thistle stimulate other antioxidant defenses in liver cells to neutralize toxic invaders. For example, one of the most powerful antioxidants in the body and a major detoxifying substance in the liver is gluthathione. In healthy humans silymarin has boosted gluthathione concentrations in the liver by 35 percent. Milk thistle also encourage activity of another potent antioxidant, superoxide dismutase, in cells of people with liver disease. The main role of this antioxidant is to search for the type of damaging free radical chemicals that are generated by alcohol in the liver.

Recommended Dosage of Milk Thistle Supplement:

Milk thistle extract usually comes in a capsule form and sometimes in syrup form. The recommended dose is 420 milligrams of silymarin taken in three divided doses everyday. When there is already an improvement in the person's health you can decrease to dose to 280 milligrams. The latter is also what the doctors advise to take to prevent liver problems.

The best quality milk thistle is absorbed rapidly and reaches maximum concentration in the blood in about an hour after it is taken. Improvement is often seen in five to eight days, with a reduction in enzymes and liver size and a lessening of jaundice and yellowing of the skin. Significant reversal of alcoholic liver damage may take a month or two. Recovery can be tested using a blood test measuring liver enzymes levels and liver biopsy. Milk thistle minimizes elevated liver enzymes, indicating liver cells are healing. Alcoholic patients generally must continue to take milk thistle extract for several months. Remission of chronic persistent hepatitis has been achieved in six months to a year with milk thistle.

Unlike other man made medicine that affect the liver, milk thistle causes only minimal side effects like stomach upset in less than one percent of users, according to research. It has also a mild laxative effects in the first few days of use. Milk thistle is safe to use in combination with other medicine. There is not toxic effect on a very high dosage of milk thistle.

Other Medicinal Uses of Milk Thistle:

• It helps to reduce insulin resistance to people with type 2 diabetes and also have cirrhosis
• It helps to reduce the growth of cancer cells in patients with breasts, cervix and prostate cancer.
• Milk thistle can also reduce the effect of hangover.
• It helps to lower cholesterol.