Quizzes & Puzzles0 min ago
Milk Thistle?
17 Answers
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
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
Answers
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by Jemisa. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.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.
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.
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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!