Subject: Re: mILK tHISTLE

From: [email-masked] (Camilla Cracchiolo)
Date: 27 Dec 1994 19:27:14 GMT

Fuzzy Navel ([email-masked]) wrote:
:  Hi! I am a newcomer to this conference and I thought that I would just poke 
: my head in and ask a question. My dad read in an article somewhere that a 
: vitamin called Milk Thistle was good for your liver if you have a liver 
: problem. He has been an alcoholic for many years and has sceirosis of the 
: liver. He said that the article stated that if he took a regime of the vitamin
: for a certain amount of time that it would make his liver almost as good as 
: new. Does anyone have any information on this? Any comments would be 
: appreciatedd. Thanks!

First of all, probably nothing is going to do a lot of good if he is still
drinking.  Having said that, there actually may be some benefit to a 
particular milk thistle extract called silymarin.  I recently ran a 
medline search on it for a relative that may have chronic viral hepatitis
(we're awaiting liver biospy results).  I came up with 20 studies, 
including one study on humans.  The results in animals were pretty 
dramatic; most of them would give half of a group of rats silymarin and
half not, then expose both groups to hepatotoxic agents.  The rats
with silymarin showed much less, and in some studies, *no* liver damage.
Some of the animal studies were from very reputable journals, and 
included one study done at Ft. Detrick (the US gov't biowarfare research
labs)

The human study was from the University of Vienna and seemed to be
fairly well constructed; as I recall it was randomized, double blind and 
placebo controlled.  They studied a relatively small group of 
people with severe cirrhosis of the liver from a variety of sources 
including alcoholism (170) and compared death rates over a 4 year period.
The death rate in the silymarin group was 39 and in the control group was 58.
In other words, it's not a cure all, but may have some benefit.
It's possible with a study this small that the effect was a statistical
artifact, so it's important that this study get replicated.   

Also of importance is the fact that no adverse effects have been reported
in humans, and the US FDA (always conservative in such matters) considers 
silymaring to be 'probably safe'.  The mechanism of action is believed to 
be the inhibition of certain oxidizing enzymes in the liver.  In other 
words, a person with cirrhosis doesn't risk a lot if they try it out.  I
strongly recommend that any person with liver disease who wishes to try 
this out take the abstract to their MD and use it only under close 
supervision.  Chronic liver disease is not something to screw around with.
If it's not working, your doc needs to know and if an unreported adverse
effect is discovered, your doc also should know.

Here is the abstract for the human study.: 

TI - Randomized controlled trial of silymarin treatment in patients
      with cirrhosis of the liver.  
AD - 1st Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of
      Vienna, Austria.  
AB - Silymarin, the active principle of the milk thistle Silybum
      marianum, protects experimental animals against various
      hepatotoxic substances. To determine the effect of silymarin on
      the outcome of patients with cirrhosis, a double blind,
      prospective, randomized study was performed in 170 patients with
      cirrhosis. 87 patients (alcoholic 46, non-alcoholic 41; 61 male,
      26 female; Child A, 47; B, 37; C, 3; mean age 57) received 140 mg
      silymarin three times daily. 83 patients (alcoholic 45,
      non-alcoholic 38; 62 male, 21 female; Child A, 42; B, 32; C, 9: 
      mean age 58) received a placebo. Non-compliant patients and
      patients who failed to come to a control were considered as 'drop
      outs' and were withdrawn from the study. All patients received
      the same treatment until the last patient entered had finished
      2-years of treatment. The mean observation period was 41 months. 
      There were 10 drop outs in the placebo group and 14 in the
      treatment group. In the placebo group, 37 (+2 drop outs) patients
      had died, and in 31 of these, death was related to liver disease. 
      In the treatment group, 24 (+4 drop outs) had died, and in 18 of
      these, death was related to liver disease. The 4-year survival
      rate was 58 +/- 9% (S.E.) in silymarin-treated patients and 39
      +/- 9% in the placebo group (P = 0.036). Analysis of subgroups
      indicated that treatment was effective in patients with alcoholic
      cirrhosis (P = 0.01) and in patients initially rated 'Child A' (P
      = 0.03). No side effects of drug treatment were
      observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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           Camilla Cracchiolo, RN   [email-masked]

        Shrine of the Cybernetic Madonna BBS  213-766-1356
        "The Board that Hates Rush Limbaugh With A Passion"
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