Milkthistle?

[nascarmom42]

I've heard about milk thistle & beetroot to heal the liver.I don't know about the quality from WalMart but that's all I can afford right now.

Would anyone know if they can be taken with BP meds??

*Thanks*
Debbie

[adec]

The liver is definitely one of the organs able to regenerate itself later in life, as long as its relatively intact. Yes milk thistle is one of the better ways for normalizing, detoxifying, and regenerating the liver, as is N-acetyl cysteine and TMG (which greatly lowers liver damaging homocycsteine.) The higher the concentration of silymarin in the milk thistle extract the better, look for at most 80 percent. You can find enough clinical trials demonstrating the benefits of all these things on liver health. This is one of the most important steps in ameliorating statin-induced damage.

To answer your question about contraindications, there are really no true cautions except if you're still taking a statin, warfarin, elavil, or valium. But then, you'd probably have far more to worry about taking these medications alone.... being as in high dosages warfarin is often labeled as rat poison, and I like to regard high-dose statins as 'human poison.' If there is a true concern, your best bet is to take milk thistle separately, as it can slow down liver enzymes, this perhaps in-turn would make any co-administered drug that much more potent. Otherwise, milk thistle would help protect your liver from damage by most medications, especially if you take prohormones or corticosteroid such as prednisone, a fairly nasty drug.

If cost is a major factor, beyondacenturyonline.com sells fully assayed high-quality bulk powders for far cheaper than the capped store bought versions. They will present certificates of analysis for any powder upon request. There are also little spoons provided to approximate the dosages. Although, there's no hard cold upper limit for milk thistle. They sell a 50 gram bottle of 80% silymarin for $5.50, which is around 120 servings of approx 500mg. Their shipping is also very reasonable.

Beyondacenturyonline.com also sells Liver Support powder, which is a combination of phosphatidylcholine, N-acetyl Cysteine, TMG, and Picroliv. All the truly good things for the liver. Choline, especially phosphatidyl, taken along with milk thistle will help it become more absorbable. Apparently Picroliv derived from the kutkin plant is the only substance more potent than milk thistle in this regard. They sell this at $9.75 for 100 grams.

Also check out Hawthorn for better regulating blood pressure. I hope this has answered your questions.

[gotts1936]

adec, thanks for the info, but your post are to complicated for most of us or me, anyways. Please keep your post limited to the supplements in question.

[adec]

I certainly do my best. Admittedly trying to distill [and capsulise] the complexities of the situation, compounded with the confounding variables of faulty current medical science, is difficult.

The liver is the largest organ and gland in the human body (with an equal amount of vital functions) and the organ most damaged by statins. The quicker the liver is returned to proper function, the more these nasty problems are adverted.... otherwise it's like a domino effect. This is what my message is trying to address adn facilitate.

BTW, I'm not just answering the original question, but a more complete and thorough one for anyone happening to read this. I hope this has laid out the easiest, safest, and most effective liver and kidney recovery road map for anyone willing and able to follow this path. I understand not everyone will have the means in obtaining these supplements. And I always welcome and try to respond to any and all e-mails.

[gotts1936]

adec, I hope you understand I was not trying to fault you, but maybe you could use lower-case english?

[cjbrooksjc]

gotts: If you run into a term or phrase that stumps you - why not try to Google it and fill in the blanks on your own? You can learn so much more about your/our situations that way. Some of this idiom is not truly translatable into a clearer, more understandable form without using still other idiomatic terms in the process.

Best,

Brooks

[BSGfan]

I have a fatty liver and gall bladder disease; sludge and polyps but no actual stones. I asked my doctor if Milk Thistle might be helpful. My doctor cautioned against it. Evidently he thought its effect of increasing bile production might increase my chances of developing gall stones.

[adec]

I've read that milk thistle increases bile solubility, which would help prevent gallstones. And I haven't any reason to believe otherwise. There's hardly any toxicity, even in large doses. The worst problem you might face is some laxative effects. I would look for a second opinion. Perhaps a good practicing naturopath can give an answer better suited to your individual biochemistry.