Silybum marianum, often known as St Mary’s thistle or milk thistle, is a spiky little herbal medicine with a beautiful pink flower. Its legend describes Mother Mary spilling her breastmilk over the leaves, giving it the characteristic white markings. Today, milk thistle is widely used to protect and restore the liver, including as our liver support product, Sylimarol. So how does it work, and could it be used to prevent other illnesses such as Alzheimer’s disease?
How Does Milk Thistle Work?
Milk thistle, including as its extract, silymarin, protects the liver in several ways. One of them is through its antioxidant effects. Many toxins cause damage through oxidative stress, and alcohol is no exception. This effect includes protection against fat oxidation, which is particularly important as the cell membranes are mostly made of fatty acids. Milk thistle also stimulates the production of our own antioxidants, including the “master” antioxidant, glutathione. The antioxidants our bodies generate are much stronger than those we consume in food, such as vitamins C and E.
Another way that milk thistle works is through reducing inflammation. Liver diseases, such as fatty liver disease and cirrhosis, are largely driven by chronic inflammation triggered by oxidative stress. Milk thistle seems to help by turning down activity of nuclear factor kappa-B (NFkB), the “master switch” of many downstream inflammatory pathways.
What if you already have a liver disease? In this case, milk thistle could help to prevent liver fibrosis, the buildup of scar tissue in the liver that eventually leads to organ failure. Lab research shows that the herb’s silymarin content could reduce the excessive collagen production that drives scar formation. In human clinical trials, people with cirrhosis have higher survival rates when they take silymarin, at a four-year survival rate of 58% instead of 39% in one study. In another analysis, the yearly death rate was 4.9% among those taking silymarin, compared to 9.3% of the placebo groups.