MILK THISTLE: WORKING WONDERS FOR THE LIVER

Native to the Mediterranean region, Milk Thistle is a superbly useful liver restorative, as well as being a general tonic and antioxidant. This herb’s beneficial effects on the liver have been recognized in Western herbal medicine right from Greek and Roman times and are borne out by modern science.

Physician and herbalist Rudolf Fritz Weiss MD points out significantly that, “In cases of chronic hepatitis of all types, there is an improvement in the general condition within the first two weeks of treatment.”(1) Research shows that the medicinally active constituent of Milk Thistle is a group of flavonolignans called silymarin, which induces the formation of liver cell proteins that are then incorporated into the cell wall, rendering it stronger and more resistant to toxins. Milk Thistle is also used to treat fatty liver and toxic overload to the liver arising from alcohol and substance abuse, pharmaceutical drugs, and the ingestion of chemically saturated food and water.

It’s interesting to note, as a measure of the unique therapeutic dominance of Milk Thistle, that it is one of the most powerfully effective treatments known to medicine for poisoning by amanita or deathcap mushroom, which contains a potent liver toxin and is so often fatal.

Health Canada has given its formal approval to St. Francis Herb Farm’s product, “Milk Thistle” (NPN 80016400).

(1) R.F. Weiss. Herbal Medicine. 6th edition. Gothenburg (Sweden): AB Arcanum; 1988, p. 83.