Milk Thistle?

[Jemisa]

Do you know of this Herb? My American friend swears by it & takes it every day (In capsule form) says it makes him feel real good, staves of lots of illnesses keeps his liver healthy, evidently its very popular over there. 7/10 people take it.
I've never heard of it in all my many years its a new one on me.

Am I naive? Can you get it here?

Jem

[chelle7272]

Yes, I know it's often used as a hangover relief. You can get in health food shops

[daffy654]

I've heard of it but never used it.

[Jemisa]

If its as good as he reckons why aren't 7/10 people taking it here?

jem

[chelle7272]

Same as you jem, maybe they've not not heard of it? I've only heard about it the last couple of years

[annadomino]

Silybum Marianum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silybum_marianum

[annadomino]

Here too.

http://www.medicinene...anum-oral/article.htm

[Jemisa]

Yes, I Googled it too, but even that doesn't tell you much or why in the USA it out sells 'Smarties' or why my doc just smiled when I asked him about it/

jem

[Bbbananas]

I have taken milk thistle in capsule form for about 3 years - every morning if I've had some alcohol the night before. It suposedly protects your liver.....

[Canary42]

7/10 taking it just confirms you can fool some of the people all the time. No wonder the doc smiled.

[annadomino]

I just grew it for its form. (Not to mention the silly name.)

[LazyGun]

1. There are lots of unproven claims made for milk thistle by advocates of herbal medicine.
2. The US has an awful lot of people who will buy pretty much anything if they are told, by word of mouth, that the vitamin / supplement/remedy will improve their health. Not much different to here, really.
3. You only have their word that "7 out of 10" Americans use it. Seems extremely unlikely to me.
4. There are some trials which suggest that milk thistle may have benefit in those situations where there is liver damage - but, that evidence comes from poorly designed trials. The better quality trials seem to show no benefit at all.More trials, and more data is required before this remedy is shown to be efficacious.

You have to take claims of the benefits of herbal remedies with a pinch of salt. People just love the idea of a "natural" remedy, and can often fool themselves as to the benefits they are seeing. As for the manufacturers of such remedies, well, it benefits their pocket if they can persuade more people of the frankly dubious health benefits of many of their concoctions.

[Jemisa]

Thanks for your opinions folks.

jem

[Smowball]

Well it cant do any harm in trying it can it? Ive heard of it though.

[vodkancoke]

If I have been out drinking I take it in powder form and make it up to a revolting tasting drink before I go to bed to prevent a hangover. I only heard about it last year but it works for me.

[LazyGun]

@V anfd C - Thats great, hangover remedies are always useful ;) - Best one I ever found and probably the cheapest? Just before going to bed, drink 1-2 pints of tapwater - works every time, for me at least ;)

[237SJ]

I had a bottle of that donkey`s years ago. I didn`t hear of it in the US but in Australia where they call it St Mary`s Thistle. I haven`t seen it advertised in the US really (and drugs ads are almost constantly on the tv). The best hangover cure I ever had was called Get Up And Go. They used to sell it in Dublin airport because when you`ve had a weekend there, you need it!