Like to Party? Then Don’t Leave Home Without Milk Thistle Seeds

Milk thistle is a flowering plant that gets its name from the milky sap contained within its leaves. Milk thistle has been used as an herbal remedy for over 2,000 years. Most of the medicinal benefits of the herb come from the seed. The milk thistle seed extract is called silymarin.

Milk Thistle, or Silymarin, for Hepatitis and Liver Function

Milk thistle seed has many uses and benefits, but it’s most frequently used in treating liver disease, and for good reason. Silymarin has been examined in numerous clinical trials, and has demonstrated safety and clinical efficacy in treating numerous liver disorders¹ – – cirrhosis,² hepatitis,³ and fatty liver.⁴  It protects the liver against damage from drugs⁵ and hepatotoxins.⁶  Silymarin can improve liver function tests in hepatitis patients⁷ and limit liver damage from chemotherapy.⁸  It even helps in the regeneration of liver cells.⁹

Antioxidant

Free radicals are unstable molecules that start chain reactions within our cells causing damage and cell destruction. We are all bombarded by free radicals from stress, injury, aging, toxins, and pollutants. Antioxidants are stable molecules that stop the chain reactions. If you exercise hard or are into hard living, you need a good anti-oxidant.

Silymarin is a great antioxidant.^{10, 11}  Not only that, it increases intracellular levels of the body’s main antioxidant enzyme called glutathione.¹²

Tell-Tale Signs of Liver Damage

If you are beginning to experience liver damage, you may get fatigued or have dark urine. If it begins to worsen, you might notice a pain that could be confused with a stomachache or back pain. If your eyes become yellow and your stools become white, you’ve got some serious liver damage.

I experienced a mild form of hepatitis while traveling in my early twenty’s and had some of these symptoms for the first time. A couple of years later, I took a prescription for acne called isotretinoin and after a few months of that began to have symptoms of liver damage. Some of these symptoms went away naturally, but the dark urine and sometimes the abdominal pain would come and go depending on how harsh I treated my liver. I began a quest to find a cure within Western and Eastern medicine and tried dozens and dozens of nutrients, supplements, and medicines. Milk thistle seemed to help a little, but I eventually came across a silymarin tablet that dissolved in the mouth and entered into the blood stream that way. I began to gradually notice a lightening in the color of my urine (a sign of liver cell regeneration). After about six months of taking this dosage form of silymarin, it returned to normal for the first time in over a decade.

How To Use Milk Thistle Seeds

The body cannot absorb the milk thistle seed extract, silymarin, very well from the GI tract. So taking capsules, powder, or whole seeds by mouth does not do a lot. Unfortunately, almost every commercially available product is designed to be taken orally.

Milk Thistle Recipes

There are numerous recipes using milk thistle seeds, from burgers to gravy to smoothies. Many people have come up with clever and delicious ways of getting a consistent intake of milk thistle. The only problem is, as mentioned above, the body does not absorb the active ingredients of milk thistle very well when swallowed. That’s not to say that these recipes are a waste, they just don’t provide an adequate or therapeutic dose of silymarin. Parenteral doses (injected via a syringe) are not easy to come by, so sublingual/buccal is the most plausible and effective route.

If you mistreat your body and liver by working hard and playing even harder, it will eventually take its toll. Prevent that from happening with orally-disintegrating tablets of milk thistle.  For more information, feel free to stop by the pharmacy and talk with our on-call pharmacist.

References

1. Wellington K, Jarvis B. 2001. “Silymarin: a review of its clinical properties in the management of hepatic disorders.” BioDrugs 15:465–89.
2. Ferenci P, Dragosics B, Dittrich H, Frank H, Benda L, Lochs H, et al. (1989). “Randomized controlled
3. tril of silymarin treatment in patients with cirrhosis of the liver”. J Hepatol. 105-13.
4. Rambaldi A, Jacobs B, Gluud C. (2007). “Milk thistle for alcoholic and/or hepatitis B or C virus liver diseases. Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews (4):CD003620.
5. Luper S. (1998). “A review of plants used in the treatment of liver disease: part 1”. Altern Med Rev. 3(6): 410-21.
6. Salmi H, Sarna S. (1982). “Effect of silymarin on chemical, functional and morphological alterations of the liver: a double-blind controlled study”. Scand J Gastroenterol 17: 517–21.
7. Hikino H, Kiso Y, Wagner H, Fiebig M. (1984). “Antihepatotoxic actions of flavolignans from Silybum marianum fruits.“ Planta Med. 50:248–50.
8. Buzzelli, G; Moscarella, S; Giusti, A; Duchini, A; Marena, C; Lampertico, M. (1998). “A pilot study on the liver protective effect of silybin-phosphatidylcholine complex (IdB1016) in chronic active hepatitis”. International journal of clinical pharmacology, therapy, and toxicology, 31(9): 456–60.
9. http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/12/14/us-milk-thistle-idUSTRE5BD2XS20091214? feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews&rpc=22&sp=true
10. Pradhan SC, Girish C. (2006). “Hepatoprotective herbal drug, silymarin from experimental pharmacology to clinical medicine”. Indian J Med Res. 1245(5): 491-504.
11. Asghar Z, Masood Z. (2008). “Evaluation of antioxidant properties of silymarin and its potential to inhibit peroxyl radicals in vitro.” Pak J Pharm Sci. 21(3):249-54.
12. Köksal E, Gülçin I, Beyza S, Sarikaya O, Bursal E. (2009). “In vitro antioxidant activity of silymarin.” J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem. 24(2): 395-405.
13. Valenzuela A, Aspillaga M, Vial S, Guerra R. (1989). “Selectivity of silymarin on the increase of the glutathione content in different tissues of the rat.” Planta Med. 55(5): 420-2.

Photo credit: Eran Finkle