Milk Thistle Extract: Silymarin for Liver Health

Help Your Liver "clean" Your Bloodstream

In our increasingly polluted lifestyles, alcohol and drugs are not the only toxins that end up in our bloodstreams: we also have to worry about what’s in the air around us and in the food intended to nourish us. The liver is the organ charged with “cleaning” the blood and detoxifying the body, so liver health is no doubt vital. Increasingly, herbal supplement enthusiasts are turning to milk thistle and its extract silymarin for an herbal product that will assist the liver with its critical metabolic functions. Milk thistle is a flowering plant, related to the common daisy, that produces the potent extract silymarin. While research results vary, most studies have shown silymarin extracted from milk thistle to have positive effects on liver health and digestive functioning.

About the Milk Thistle Plant

Due to its hardiness, milk thistle grows all over the world, both as a native plant and an introduced plant. Its genus comprises two species, and the variety used in liver health is the Silybum marianum. Although the flower of the milk thistle can be a lovely pink, magenta, or purple, the vital silymarin extract is produced from the fruit of the plant - specifically the seed (which is not normally eaten, in case you’re wondering).

Milk Thistle’s Effects on the Liver

First, Silymarin has antioxidant qualities, meaning that it prevents important substances from oxiding by pre-emptively oxiding. In other words, chemicals in the liver can continue to perform their necessary functions because the antioxidant oxidized first. Consider milk thistle extract, then, to be a sort of herbal martyr, helping to protect liver cell membranes. Silymarin is also an anti-inflammatory substance - hence the use for hepatits patients. The net effect of milk thistle on the liver is one of purification and detoxification. The silymarin frees and stimulates the liver’s functions while protecting its cells.