Study contradicts milk thistle effects

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Study contradicts milk thistle effects

United Press International

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec 14, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Scientists have called for further studies of milk thistle extract after studies show no positive or adverse affects on liver disease.
Milk thistle extract has been promoted as an alternative for treating liver disease caused by alcoholism or hepatitis B or C.
Researchers from Copenhagen University Hospital found no reaction in 900 patients with the disease over a six month period. The milk thistle neither protected against hepatoxins nor increased the health risk.
Dr. Christian Gluud said milk thistle products should not be sold as preventative medicine and more studies should be carried out.
The study was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.
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There's quite a big difference between being effective at treating an already existing illness and being effective at preventing that illness. I seriously doubt most antioxidants would do much if anything for liver disease that's already there. Preventing its onsent is another matter.
 
CDB said:
There's quite a big difference between being effective at treating an already existing illness and being effective at preventing that illness. I seriously doubt most antioxidants would do much if anything for liver disease that's already there. Preventing its onsent is another matter.
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Very good point...eating healthy and exercising can help prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes, but once you have those diseases, you're going to need more extreme measures to keep you alive. Sure a diet will help, but you'll need statins, perhaphs beta blockers and nitrates, and if you have diabetes, glucophage and the like.
 
It has never been clear that Silymarin helped with viral hepatitis. If anything, it has proven to be more of a bandaid that reduced damage for a short time. It never affected viral load, so the source of the damage is always there. You have to understand that liver disease almost always occurs with chronic stress (as in years), like viral disease or alcoholism.

However, if you allow the liver to be free of abnormal stress, it will fix itself. The liver is an amazing organ, and one of the few tissues that can regenerate while also doing its job. There is a great laboratory model called 2/3 partial hepatectomy where literally 2/3 of the liver is removed. Amazingly, the remaining 1/3 grows back to the entire initial mass, in just a couple weeks. So, you can see that the liver is quite resilient, and can take a lot of damage in the short term.

Unlike viral hepatitis, toxic liver damage, at least as far as we are concerned, is acute. Meaning that you aren't "on" for years without a break, and as soon as you go off your methylated oral, the stress stops. So, don't take this one study as proof that Milk Thistle doesn't work for our purposes. There are all kinds of articles showing that silymarin is protective during acute toxic exposure.

(Note I didn't say anything about liver cancer, which is a whole different discussion)
 
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