Milk Thistle
Milk thistle extract or silymarin is a powerful herbal remedy for liver and gallbladder health.
Milk thistle is one of the most researched herbs to protect liver health. Silymarin is the active ingredient that is normally concentrated into supplements. It can be taken as a tea, liquid tincture, or capsule.
Studies show that milk thistle helps support liver detoxification and repair from acute liver injury.
It may support a fatty liver, bile flow, and the clearance/repair following liver exposure to toxins, chemicals, drugs, and alcohol.
It also helps reduce advanced glycation end products – sticky residues from eating too much sugar that attach to cells and contribute to aging of the skin and body tissues. By protecting from sugar damage – milk thistle is regarded to promote brain and skin health too.
Supplementation with milk thistle and its extract silymarin have been associated with boosts in the body’s most important antioxidant systems such as glutathione and superoxide dismutase.
For lactating women, milk thistle may promote healthy milk production.
For men, milk thistle is known to promote prostate health.
Milk thistle does contain natural oxalates which can be an issue for a subset of individuals with oxalate sensitivity – and may look to Megasporebiotic to support liver health as a clinical trial in a rat model showed it can support liver health to the same level as silymarin/milk thistle. This is because the gut and its microbes work as a primary filter of toxins prior to the liver’s involvement.
When the gut is off and the balance of bacteria is poor – the gut not only loses some of its detoxification capacity, it also starts adding toxins to the system – a double negative on liver health. Milk thistle can help support liver health while healing the gut.
It can be taken long-term or over a periodic cleanse period of 1-3 months depending on your goals.
Milk Thistle Supplements:
- Mycobotanicals Liver – Host Defense Mushrooms
- Super Milk Thistle – Integrative Therapeutics
- Lipotropic Complex – Integrative Therapeutics
- Liver GI Detox – Pure Encapsulations
- Silymarin – Milk Thistle Extract – Pure Encapsulations
- All Milk Thistle Supplements
