07/10/2007
Milk Thistle | Friend or Foe
A portrait of milk thistle as friend and foe: Friend to people when it is used as an herb and foe to farmers and cattlemen as a weed.
What is this organization that sings the praises of milk thistle and points out its practical shortcomings when allowed to proliferate? It's the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board.
Milk thistle (Silybum marianum also called “blessed milk thistle” and “variegated thistle”) is considered a noxious weed by the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board. It is toxic and deadly to cattle in its wilted state and known for its ability to overtake established pasture lands. It is found mainly in Canada, California, Washington, Oregon, Texas and Nebraska.
Curiously, milk thistle is considered a weed in America while in parts of Europe it is used as food. The young leaves are used in salads, the stalks eaten like asparagus, and the heads boiled like artichoke.
Whether you regard the plant as weed or food, one thing is for sure, almost everyone knows of the health benefits of the herb, milk thistle, when taken in supplement form. In fact, according to a report in the Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (Canada) milk thistle ranked 12th among the top selling herb supplements in the U.S. mass market, with sales of over $3m (m) in 1997.
Why take milk thistle?
According to the Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board the active component of milk thistle is silymarin, a combination of 3 flavanoids, which is a liver protective.
And, silybin(part of the chemical structure of silymarin)is an antioxidant that also “alters the membrane structure of the liver cell, blocking the absorption of toxins into the cell. Silybin stimulates the production of new liver cells to replace damaged cells"
For some references to research involving milk thistle, refer to the Milk Thistle Research and click on more information tab.
Research on Milk thistle and blood sugar;
The researchers first reported on-line in the journal “Phytotherapy Research” (doi:10.1002/ptr,1988). They conducted this randomized, clinical trial in Tehran, Iran with lead researcher, Fallah Huseini, of The Institute of Medicinal.
Plants concluding: “the results are very encouraging, and we now need to do further large multi-centre studies.”
The research involved 51 people with type-2 diabetes. They took part in a four-month randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. One group was assigned to receive a daily milk thistle supplement (200 milligrams three times per day); and, the other group received a placebo (three times per day). The participants (both groups) continued their conventional medications.
The research showed that milk thistle lowered fasting blood glucose levels by 15%. And, as if, that wasn’t enough it also had beneficial effects(reduced the levels of) on glycosylated haemoglobin (glucose coated hemoglobin)levels(1.04%), total cholesterol levels(12%), LDL cholesterol(the bad cholesterol) levels(12%) and triglyceride levels(25%).
“The results show that although there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups of patients at the beginning of the study, silymarin [milk thistle extract] significantly lowered HbA1c(glucose coated hemoglobin or glycosylated hemoglobin) and fasting blood glucose levels in diabetic patients at the end of the study,” wrote the researchers.
Since, the researchers could not say what the actual mechanism behind the effects was, they called for more large multi-centre studies to further investigate the potential role of milk thistle extracts in type-2 diabetes.
“We don’t know the exact mechanism of action for this effect, but this work shows that silymarin could play an important role [against] type II diabetes,” said Huseini.
This is significant in light of current estimates of 20 million diabetics in the U.S.
Although we're not advocating milk thistle as a cure for diabetes, we're just verifying what we already know--this herb offers amazing health potential and bears watching as more research is done in this area.
REFERENCES
News Target (www.newstarget.com), 11/2/06; "Study shows milk thistle extract treats diabetes by lowering blood sugar, protecting liver"
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
07:30 Posted in Milk Thistle | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: milk thistle, headache, diabetic