17 Sep How does Milk Thistle work?
Milk thistle is a well-known herbal remedy designed to help with the symptoms of over-indulgence, but what’s the science behind this amazing herb?
In this article, we explore how milk thistle helps with common digestive problems.
What is Milk Thistle?
Milk Thistle is a multi-purpose herbal supplement that is most commonly used to support digestion, either on a daily basis or after over-indulgence.
The Milk Thistle plant has spiky purple flowers and grows all over the world. It reach up to two meters tall!
The entire plant can be harvested for use in herbal medicine.
In tablet form, it can be taken daily to dramatically improve digestion or saved for special occasions, such as after a particularly indulgent evening.
How does Milk Thistle work?
Milk thistle contains silymarin which can protect the liver from toxins, repair damaged tissue and reduce inflammation. It also stimulates the production of bile which helps to break down fats, eliminate toxins and support hormone production.
Silymarin
The seeds of the Milk Thistle plant contain silymarin, a type of flavonoid which is the active ingredient in your Milk Thistle tablets. Silymarin is essentially a powerful antioxidant with substantial anti-inflammatory and immune system benefits.
Protecting the liver from toxins
Inside the body, silymarin works to strengthen the outer membranes of the liver cells. This helps to reduce the number of toxins entering the liver.
Repairing damaged tissue
Silymarin also stimulates the process by which cells make proteins – essential for repairing and replacing cell tissue. In particular, Milk Thistle has been found to be effective in repairing damaged liver tissue.
Reducing inflammation
Milk Thistle is known for being a powerful anti-inflammatory. Again, this is thanks to silymarin which is proven to reduce inflammation through its protein synthesising powers.
Bile production
Milk thistle is also highly effective at stimulating the production and flow of bile, a substance which is essential to digestion.
Breaking down fats
Milk thistle can help to avoid illnesses like non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) which occur when fat builds up in the liver. Thanks to its ability to stimulate bile production which breaks down fats, milk thistle helps to prevent fat from accumulating in the liver.
Eliminating toxins
Another of bile’s primary functions is to remove toxins from the body. By supporting bile production, milk thistle plays a part in ensuring bile can successfully carry toxins through the body and expel toxins via faeces.
Supporting hormone production
Hormones are made from fats. This means Milk Thistle can play a part in maintaining healthy hormone synthesis by aiding bile production and breaking down fats into the necessary fatty acids.
Milk Thistle for overindulgence
HRI Milk Thistle comes in easy to swallow tablet form. It’s a licenced traditional herbal registration (THR) medicine which means it’s the highest quality available on the market.
But don’t take it from us – this review of HRI Milk Thistle from Amazon Customer, Katie L, made us chuckle: “I’m not sanctioning using it to negate the hangovers at Christmas, but they seem to make a huge difference.”
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