Liver Disease

Silymarin provided protection against the toxic effects of long-term treatment with psychotropic drugs (used in mental illness) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical study of 60 people. Before the study began, all of the participants had been taking the psychotropic drugs phenothiazine or butyrophenone, or both, for at least 5 years. Subjects were divided into four groups for the 3-month trial: group I took psychotropic drugs and a high dose of silymarin (800 mg per day), group 11 took psychotropics with placebo, group III took silymarin only (800 mg per day), and group IV took placebo. Silymarin provided liver protection to group I by reducing blood levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), an indicator of liver damage that increases during long-term treatment with psychotropics. Not surprisingly, the decrease in MDA levels was even greater in the group taking silymarin alone (group III ). Patients in group II continued to experience rising levels of MDA, whereas those who took placebo had declining MDA levels until the psychotropics were reinstated. There were no adverse effects associated with Milk Thistle treatment.

Alcoholic Liver Disease

A 1981 double-blind study followed 106 Finnish soldiers with mild alcoholic liver disease. In the treated group, there was a significant improvement in liver function as measured by blood tests and biopsy. 19 Another study reported similar results.20 However, a study of 116 participants showed little to no benefit,21 as did another study of 72 people followed for 15 months.

Cirrhosis:

Clinical Study (1989)

Long-term treatment with silymarin significantly increased survival rates in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 105 people with cirrhosis. Subjects took either 420 mg of silymarin daily or placebo during the study, which lasted for approximately 41 months. Over a 4-year period, the mortality rate in the placebo group was twice that of the silymarin group. Silymarin showed the greatest benefit in those with alcohol-related cirrhosis. There appeared to be no difference in the results of liver function tests (transminases, bilirubin, SGGPT, and other liver enzymes) between the two groups. No side effects were reported.

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