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TechnoratiFirst and foremost, try to minimize your exposure to foreign chemicals, both at home and in your workplace. Second, I recommend that you saturate your body with the natural substances known to protect your liver. One of these natural substances is silybum marianum, commonly known as milk thistle. This amazing herb has a long history of traditional use. In Roman times, it was used for such conditions as jaundice. Also, the famous Elizabethan herbalist Nicholas Culpepper expounded on milk thistle’s effectiveness in removing liver obstructions.
Today, more research has been done on milk thistle than any other herb used for liver health. The results of hundreds of scientific studies show that milk thistle’s active constituents, a group of flavonoids collectively known as silymarin, protect the liver by:
• Enhancing key liver detoxification pathways.
• Controlling inflammation in the liver.
• Inhibiting the development of liver fibrosis.
• Preventing free-radical damage to liver cells.
• Supporting local immunity within the liver.
• Stimulating liver cell regeneration.
Milk thistle has also been used in Germany for several decades to treat liver diseases. Also, a favorite national pastime in Germany is mushroom collecting – a practice with inherent risks, such as the accidental ingestion of Amanita phalloides, the Death Cap mushroom. Consuming the Death Cap mushroom results in severe, usually deadly, liver damage. In fact, those that survive Death Cap poisoning have been so badly damaged that they most often require liver transplants to continue to live. Fortunately, silymarin binds to liver cells, preventing the mushroom poisons from binding, and thus blocking their poisonous effect. The silymarin is also able to directly neutralize the poison itself, making it effective even if it is taken after the mushroom poison has been ingested. For this reason, an ample supply of milk thistle extract is kept on hand in German hospitals where it is administered on an emergency basis for treating otherwise fatal Death Cap mushroom poisoning.
Milk thistle has such a profound influence on improving liver health that the National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a part of the National Institutes of Health, is collaborating on a study to examine its efficacy to treat hepatitis C patients. Milk thistle is undoubtedly the premier herb for enhancing liver health.
For information on Dr. Cherry’s natural supplements, visit DrCherry.com.
