What You Need to Know About the Herbal Supplement Milk Thistle by Dr. Sharon Orrange/Primary Care Physician: at DailyStrength Doctors and Advisors

Dr. Orrange received her BA in Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and a Masters Degree in Health Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. She received her MD from the USC Keck School of…

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LOCATION: Santa Monica, CA, USA

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Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Geriatric, Hospital and General Internal Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California

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What You Need to Know About the Herbal Supplement Milk Thistle

Posted in Hepatitis C by Dr. Sharon Orrange on Aug 09, 2011

With so much misinformation about milk thistle out there it is important to focus on the known benefits along with potential risks. The scientific name of milk thistle is Silymarin Marianum and it is a member of the daisy family. People wonder if they should be taking milk thistle on a daily basis and for most the answer is likely no.

Benefits

- Milk thistle was originally used to help milk production in lactating women, which is where the name comes from.

- Evidence does exist that milk thistle may be hepatoprotective (liver protective) by limiting entry of liver toxins into liver cells and stimulating liver regeneration.

- Possible benefit has been shown in patients with alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease, with improvement in their liver blood tests (AST/ALT) in those folks taking milk thistle.

- In mice, protection has been shown from skin diseases associated with sun, and kidney protection in diabetic mice given milk thistle has been reported.

- In a recent 8 week trial on people with Obsessive-Compulsive disorder comparing 600 mg of milk thistle to fluoxetine 30 mg per day showed no difference.

- In a recent study on children receiving chemotherapy for acute leukemia, the use of milk thistle resulted in reduced liver toxicity.

Drawbacks:

- It is not safe for everyone to take milk thistle on a daily basis along with other medications. Many commonly prescribed medications interact with milk thistle including: losartan, warfarin, flagyl, carvedilol, and several other diabetes and cholesterol medications.

- It is important to know there isn’t one specific type of milk thistle preparation or a recommended dose that everyone should be taking. This is largely because herbal preparations in the United States are essentially unregulated so there is no “one tablet fits all.”

- While some improvement in blood liver tests have been seen in those taking milk thistle, mortality or progression to cirrhosis has never been shown to be significantly improved by milk thistle.

- In humans, there is no evidence yet that milk thistle benefits skin diseases, skin cancer and psoriasis, or improves kidney function in diabetics.

Effort is underway to study the effects of milk thistle on cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes but the evidence isn’t there yet for people to be taking this on a regular basis. Stay tuned.

- Dr O.

In my research, and for me and my health issues, I find dandelion to be one of the most helpful for the pancreas and liver. I am a double diabetic ( a type 1 and 2 proabably due to the CP) and dandelion doesnt affect my sugars. Other herbs for the pancre Posted on 04/06/11 07:03:08 pm

Even without these treatments, some patients will see a reversal in fibrosis over time. The real problem is for those where it become progressive and the scarring kills neighbouring cells, which then forms further scar tissue and the cycle goes on. I did Posted on 03/26/11 11:34:33 am

I think all listed are good with the exception to the Milk Thistle. I think I read an article at the Mayo Clinic web site, that Milk Thistle exasberates (make HH worse) the HH. I personnally was taking it since diag. with fatty liver, almost a year, and I Posted on 02/25/11 12:39:37 pm

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CATEGORIES: Answers

CONDITIONS AND COMMUNITIES: Nutrition • Breastfeeding • Fatty Liver Disease • Hepatitis C • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) • Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) • Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) • Alcoholism • Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) • Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) • Cirrhosis • Diabetes Type 1 • Diabetes Type 2 • Eczema • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome • High Cholesterol • Liver Cancer • Psoriasis • Renal Cell Carcinoma (Kidney Cancer) • Renal Tubular Acidosis (RTA) • Skin Cancer

TAGS: Therapies

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juicing is better for you by far then anything else. Just go to your produce section and save money.

https://www.facebook.com/Hepatitis....

By psmike59 Apr 06, 2012

SAM-e works better in protecting the liver. Also you may want to try dandelion root, suppose to be alot stronger then milk thistle.

By psmike59 Apr 06, 2012

Yes: St Mary's Thistle and Milk Thistle are the same thing

By DrOrrange Aug 10, 2011

are st mary's thistle and milk thistle the same thing?