Think of Milk Thistle as a tune-up for your liver. Your liver is one of the hardest working and most important organs in your body. It filters and clears everything your body is exposed to – food, drugs, alcohol, pollution – you name it! Milk Thistle protects the liver and helps it with all its housekeeping. It is also a great herb for helping digestion because it stimulates the flow of bile. Milk Thistle’s active medicinal ingredient, an antioxidant known as silymarin, resides in the shell of the Milk Thistle seed and is responsible for Milk Thistle’s protective and regenerative effects on the liver. Clinical results are impressive and have shown that Milk Thistle can help the liver to regenerate at four times its normal rate! Because it is rich in antioxidants, Milk Thistle may also prevent toxins from causing oxidative damage to the liver, thought to be one of the main causes of chronic liver disease. How does Milk Thistle have such miraculous effects on such a key organ? It is thought that Milk Thistle works by protecting specialized immune cells in the liver that scoop up and destroy bacteria, toxins and other foreign matter. By protecting these cells, Milk Thistle helps keep the liver healthy and up to the task of clearing toxins from our bodies. Such promising health benefits for the liver have led researchers to study Milk Thistle for other positive activities in the body. They have found it to be helpful for regulating the digestion of fats, stabilizing blood sugar and cholesterol levels, reducing inflammation in the digestive tract and promoting the excretion of excess hormones. Be patient with Milk Thistle as it must be used for a minimum of three weeks before you will experience its beneficial effects.
Used in Herbal Medicine to help relieve digestive upset and support liver function.