Who doesn’t want to be that little bit healthier? Especially if improving your health involves minimal effort. With this in mind we’ve made it our mission to bring you news each week of a product, a foodstuff, an exercise technique or a pill that promises magical health-giving properties.
This week’s magic ingredient: Milk thistle.
Not to be confused with: Milk with thistles floating in it.
What exactly are we talking here? Milk thistle is the name given to a type of thistle of the genus Silybum Adans – similar to the purple and green spikey chap the Scottish are so fond of. It’s native to the Mediterranean, North Africa and parts of the Middle East. It earns the tag ‘milk thistle’ by virtue of the fact that it leaks a milky sap.
What is it used for? It has a range of uses, the main one being as a liver tonic. It has been used as a way of boosting liver function in those with problems with various issues with their biggest internal organ for the best part of 2,000 years. It was even pumped into people who managed to poison themselves – by eating death cap mushrooms.
Today, people with hepatitis, liver disease from over-indulging on alcohol and other chemicals often call on milk thistle, and studies have shown promising results. Body builders looking to support their liver through courses of anabolic steroids are also turning to the ancient remedy.
But, you don’t have to have a messed up liver to benefit – high salt diets and occasional drink binges are enough to damage its function so milk thistle can lessen the impact. So much so, that a lot of over-the-counter hang-over cures feature it in their list of ingredients. Many people take milk thistle as a way of protecting the liver on an ongoing basis, as well as when attempting to help it filter out the steroids, alcohol, salt and mushroom poison they’ve pushed down their gullet.
My Liver is evil, so I regularly punish it with alcohol. Will this stuff ruin my good work? The active ingredient in milk thistle is silymarin, which is a term given to a group of flavonoids (silibinin, silidianin, and silicristin). They can help repair liver cells damaged by alcohol and other toxins while also keeping new liver cells from being destroyed. Â It reduces inflammation of the liver and acts as a powerful antioxidant.
Anything else? As well as the whole liver thing, many of milk thistle’s biggest fans claim it can also lower cholesterol levels and reduce the growth of cancer cells in breast, cervical and prostate cancers. It is also commonly given as a tonic for people undergoing heroin withdrawal.
I’m not a smack head, but I think I could still benefit. Where can I it? Milk thistle is an ingredient in a range of herbal remedies, such as in the case of hangover cures. However, it can be purchased in its pure form in most health food shops and in some pharmacies.
What form does it come in? It can come in liquid form, but is most commonly made into capsules of standardised dried herb made from the seeds. Each capsule contains about 120 to 140mg of silymarin.
Are there any side-effects? Rarely. The odd person might get some very slight indigestion, headache or itching but this would be far from the norm.
Robert Carry
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