The majority of people in the United States have an overabundance of poisons in their bodies, and their livers are overloaded. Take a look at the toxins within our environment, and also the reasons behind these health problems are virtually no mystery. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 2.2 billion pounds of environmental toxins were discharged into the environment between the years 1987 and 1994 and that’s merely counting industrial waste. If you include over-the-counter and prescription drugs that we consume, combined with additives in many food products, our bodies are dealing with a shocking quantity of chemicals that we’re not capable of handling.

Hence, the necessity for milk thistle (Silybum marianum), At one time or another, almost everyone can be helped by this potent herb that has the capability to defend and revitalize the liver, our major organ of detoxification.

Milk Thistle History
Milk Thistle has been utilized for its medicinal properties for over 2,000 years. During the span of those two millennia, herbalists have learned to admire the beneficial effect it can have on the liver and gallbladder. In Germany, where doctors routinely prescribe herbal remedies, it’s one of the favored remedy for liver problems. Which might be news to many people in the United States, but even here, it’s getting growing awareness among health practitioners and the general public. The “milk” in the name refers to the white sap that leaves markings on the leaf-but it also contains the prickly, spiny appearance of a typical thistle. It grows wild in parts of Europe, Russia, Asia, and North America. English colonists brought it to North America. It’s the milk thistle seeds which have medicinal properties. The seeds contain a group of flavonoids which are together termed as silymarin. Within this group are silibin, silidianin, and silychristin.

All flavonoids in the silymarin complex contain the combined power of antioxidants that can prevent free-radical damage from the toxic substances that enter the liver. Silymarin has been discovered to be 10 times stronger an antioxiant than vitamin E, the only vitamin most famous for its antioxidant power. It’s silymarin that the unique capability to slow up the rate at which the liver absorbs toxic substances.

Additionally, milk thistle is among the few substances that can boost the glutathione content of the liver. This is important as glutathione, one of the body’s most significant . antioxidants, is very important for efficient detoxification. Milk thistle also boosts the levels of another potent antioxidant known as superoxide dismutase (SOD).