Guest guest Posted December 31, 2004 Report Share Posted December 31, 2004 A good review on milk thistle can be found at: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/epcsums/milktsum.htm The " active ingredient " of milk thistle is thought to be silymarin. There are conflicting reports on the effectiveness of this compound in liver disease. Mayo clinic concludes that silymarin is not effective in the treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis: Angulo P, Patel T, nsen RA, Therneau TM, Lindor KD 2000 Silymarin in the treatment of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis with a suboptimal response to ursodeoxycholic acid. Hepatology 32: 897-900. However, there are reports of positive effects of silymarin in various animal models of liver disease. Just the other day there was discussion here of the possible role of the female hormone estrogen in PSC. It is well known that in animals, estrogen can induce cholestatis, and silymarin seems to protect against this: Crocenzi FA, Pozzi EJ, Pellegrino JM, Favre CO, Garay EA, Mottino AD, R, Roma MG 2001 Beneficial effects of silymarin on estrogen-induced cholestasis in the rat: a study in vivo and in isolated hepatocyte couplets. Hepatology 34: 329-339. For other studies on silymarin see: http://www.psc-literature.org/silym.htm Best regards, Dave (father of (19); PSC 07/03; UC 08/03) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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