What is Milk Thistle?

Have you seen this ingredient listed on a cleansing product label?  Did you know what it was?  It sounds strange but it’s really a good friend to your body.  Read on to learn more about this helpful herb.

Milk thistle is a flowering herb related to the daisy family.  Native to Mediterranean lands, it has been used as a medicinal herb for more than two centuries.  Pliny the Elder, who lived from 23AD to 79AD and was perhaps Ancient Rome’s finest historian, naturalist and author, wrote of the milk thistle’s ability to “carry off bile”. 

Milk thistle has long been believed to be a natural remedy for liver dysfunction.  It’s primary active ingredient is silymarin.  Silymarin has both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.  It’s a potent ingredient that needs more modern research to back up the reputation it has earned over the past two millennia.

The studies that have been performed in more recent times are showing very promising results.  Some early research showed that it could aid those with alcohol-related liver problems.  Another study showed encouraging results for some whose livers had been damaged by industrial toxins like xylene and toluene.  It’s also being researched for its possible positive effects on type-2 diabetes and high cholesterol.  Hopefully, more researches will look to this herb for answers.

All of this makes milk thistle an important ingredient for a detox cleanse.  Many toxins are stored in the liver and this important organ is responsible for cleaning and maintaining your blood.  It breaks down old and damaged blood cells and it breaks down fat too.  It helps produce energy so if you’re feeling sluggish, milk thistle might just be the cleansing ingredient you need.

It takes more than one system to run the body and more than one ingredient to help the body do its work.  Milk thistle is certainly one to look for but read up on some of the other natural ingredients in Herbal Clean products to see which one is right for you.