If you've been checking out supplements, then definitely you've come across milk thistle, also known as silymarin. Why is it there? How exactly helpful is it to the body? The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMM) has come up with a dedicated page for this herb.
Milk thistle or Silybum marianum has been around for thousands of years, and its use to treat different maladies go as far as 2 centuries ago.
The main weapon of the herb, so to speak, is a flavonoid known as silymarin. It is believed to be such a potent antioxidant, and it helps reduce body inflammation. Chronic inflammation is now viewed as one of the deepest reasons for some of the serious diseases in the world, including cardiovascular disorders and cancers.
It's usually used to manage and even treat liver disease, such as the cirrhosis due to alcohol and hepatitis (including hepatitis C). In one study, participants who didn't respond well to conventional hepatitis C drugs improved upon taking milk thistle. About half of them didn't show a detectable level of the virus only after 2 weeks of milk thistle treatment.
Nevertheless, there is no conclusive evidence that points out to its real effectiveness in treating liver diseases.
Milk thistle is also believed to be the antidote of deathcap mushroom poisoning. Even a single cap can already be enough to kill someone, though the "death process" seems to be very slow, as there's a period of recovery in between. In the end, poisoning can lead to a possible irreversible damage to the liver.
Using animals in one study, the researchers (not from UMM), they discovered that the mushroom can counteract the effect very quickly and reduce the potential damage to the liver if the herb is consumed within 24 hours.
Some studies have also pointed out to the herb's effectiveness in treating cancer by preventing the cancer cells to divide and reproduce.
