Liver damage can occur from a number of toxins, including alcohol and drugs such as acetaminophen. Milk thistle, which comes from the seeds of the milk thistle plant, contains silymarin, which may help heal liver damage. Three substances make up silymarin -- silibinin, silidianin and silicristin. They are flavonoids, plant substances that may have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits. Studies on the value of milk thistle, an herb traditionally used to treat liver disease, have shown mixed results. Do not take milk thistle to treat liver disease without your doctor's approval.
Uses
Milk thistle has traditionally been used in alternative medicine to prevent and treat liver damage either from acute causes such as poisoning or from chronic liver diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, alcoholism or from viral hepatitis, the most common reason for liver transplant in the United States according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Milk thistle supplements contain 70 to 80 percent silymarin. A form of milk thistle sold in silymarin-phosphatidylcholine complex form may have the best absorption and may prevent toxins from entering liver cells, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Positive Studies
A review of available literature by researchers from University Hospital Zurich, published in the 2001 issue of "Drugs," concluded that milk thistle may have some value in treating liver disease. In one study, silibinin reduced mortality from 18.3 percent to 9.8 percent from Amanita phalloides poisoning. Mortality from alcoholic liver disease also decreased 7 percent and encephalopathy, a type of brain damage associated with liver disease, decreased 8.7 percent in reviewed studies. Researchers underscored the need for prospective clinical trials to determine the benefit of silymarin in liver disease.
Negative Studies
Researchers from the University of California-San Francisco published a review of 14 studies in the October 2002 issue of "The American Journal of Medicine." They found no difference in mortality rates, laboratory values or improvement in histology during liver biopsy in patients who took milk thistle for liver disease and those who took placebo. A Danish review of studies published in October 2007 in the "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews" found that only 28.6 percent of 18 studies that assessed the value of milk thistle in treating hepatitis B or C or alcoholic liver damage were well-designed. No reduction in mortality rates was found in well-designed, high-quality clinical trials, researchers reported.
Considerations
The clinical trials on the use of milk thistle in liver disease currently available do not use standardized methods, doses or time frames, which make their results difficult to evaluate, researchers from Copenhagen Centre for Clinical Intervention Research stressed. Milk thistle appears to have few side effects, although it may cause diarrhea and stomach upset. Pregnant women should not take this herb. Do not take milk thistle if you have liver disease without talking to your doctor first.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Viral Hepatitis; May 2011
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Milk Thistle; Steven Ehrlich; March 2009
- "American Journal of Medicine"; Milk Thistle for the Treatment of Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis; B. Jacobs, et al.; October 2002
- "Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews"; Milk Thistle for Alcoholic and/or Hepatitis B or C Virus Liver Diseases; A. Rambaldi, et al.; October 2007
- "Drugs"; The Use of Silymarin in the Treatment of Liver Diseases; R. Saller, et al.; 2001
