Don't need to... I already know milk thistle is a good thing.

I'm just one of the very rare people who is on an unusual medication
that conflicts :(

The years I was taking it and when I stopped, it was just a suspected
benefit.

I suppose if it now has a proven benefit, I could check my heart rate
(that's what my other drug is for) 4 times a day or wear a holter
monitor, and then start on the milk thistle for a couple of weeks and
then check heart rate again.

Because measuring blood levels of the actual drug in question i believe
would be way to expensive to do as an individual outside of a funded
research study or with backing from the pharm.

The clinical trials were done in Austria.  I remember posting the trial
results to this group quite some time ago.  This is something a bit more
fresh but I beleive it refers to the same battery of testings.   Importance:
Concentration and amount of compound to to reach blood supply is very
important.  As you say it is important to injest the ground milk thistle
seed as well as it reduces inflammation in the liver and is a recognized
detoxifier/anti-oxidant.  I *think* that much of which we read about the
benefits of Milk Thistle are more in line with what the whole ground does
for the liver.  The same compound also exists in the food plant Artichoke.

-cactus jammies
.......................................
http://www.catie.ca/catienews.nsf/00a48c8905294f0b8525717f00661eb8/8a96f3de84f05
00b8525754b00586b59!OpenDocument

Milk thistle-hints of help for hepatitis C

The herb milk thistle has been used for millennia as part of traditional
European remedies for gastrointestinal and liver illness. This herb contains
many compounds, some of which are being studied in lab experiments with
cells. In these experiments, extracts of milk thistle appear to have
anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and antioxidant activity. What's more, some
of the extracts have antiviral activity against hepatitis C virus (HCV). All
of these properties have stimulated further interest and research in this
herb.

Researchers in Vienna, Austria, have been conducting small clinical trials
with an intravenous formulation of a milk thistle extract-silibinin-in
people with hepatitis C who are unresponsive to standard therapy. Their
results are somewhat surprising and suggest that silibinin has potent
anti-HCV activity in some people. Much work remains to be done to confirm
and extend these findings.

Study details
For the study, 36 volunteers (5 female, 31 male) were recruited. All had HCV
mono-infection and previous standard HCV therapy-the immune booster
interferon and the antiviral drug ribavirin-had failed to cure them. Their
average age was 50 years and most had the hard-to-treat strain of HCV called
genotype 1. About 55% had moderate-to-severe liver damage.

The study team first gave participants different intravenous doses of highly
purified silibinin, sold as Legalon Sil (made by Madaus GmbH, in Köln,
Germany), for one or two weeks, followed by a combination of interferon and
ribavirin. Additionally, once participants stopped receiving IV silibinin,
they were switched to an oral formulation of a mix of concentrated milk
thistle extracts called silymarin. This oral formulation was taken three
times daily. So far, most participants have taken silymarin and
interferon-ribavirin for at least 24 weeks and the trial will continue for
an additional 24 weeks.

Results
High doses-15 or 20 mg/kg/day-of IV silibinin alone caused a significant
decline (between 100- and 10,000-fold) in HCV levels. The addition of
interferon-ribavirin resulted in a further decline in virus levels.

In two of five participants who received 15 mg/kg/day of IV silibinin, HCV
levels fell below the threshold of detection; the lower limit of
quantification of the test was 15 international units (IU). Five of nine
participants who received the 20 mg/kg/day dose also had HCV levels fall
below the 15 IU level.

After 12 weeks of combination therapy, a total of eight participants
continued to have very low levels of HCV (less than 15 IU).

Safety
In general, IV silibinin use was well tolerated. Eight participants
complained of the following symptoms (some participants had more than one
symptom), each of which they described as "mild":

abdominal pain (five people)
diarrhea (two people)
nausea (one person)
headache (two people)
joint pain (one person)
All participants receiving high doses of IV silibinin reported feeling
warmer when the herb was infused into their veins; this feeling subsided
after 30 minutes.

Intravenous vs. oral
In this study, IV silibinin appears to have potent anti-HCV activity.
However, according to the study team, oral doses of milk thistle extract did
not share this effect. The study team suspects that this is likely due to
the extensive processing and breakdown of the extracts in the intestine and
liver. Previous studies have found that oral formulations of milk thistle
result in very low levels of active extracts in the blood. These levels are
much lower than seen in lab experiments with liver cells. Taking this into
account, it is perhaps not surprising that another study has found that oral
milk thistle had no effect on HCV levels in people. Future research will
likely use highly purified milk thistle extracts given intravenously.

The current protocol used in the Vienna study is a bit
cumbersome-intravenous infusion over a period of four hours each day.
However, the Austrian research team is exploring different schedules, such
as five consecutive days weekly and perhaps repeated and longer use of IV
silibinin, in people who show a partial response to therapy. Further studies
are needed to determine the best dose of silibinin and possible interactions
with other drugs. Researchers in Austria and the United States hope to
conduct a larger study of IV silibinin followed by interferon-ribavirin
treatment in volunteers whose HCV infection was not cleared when previously
treated with standard therapy.

Notes on extracts
Silymarin is the name given to a mix of compounds called flavonoids found in
milk thistle. The chief compound in silymarin is silibinin (found as an
equal mixture of silibinin A and silibinin). Other compounds found in
silymarin include the following:

silydianin
silycristin
isosilybin A
isosylibin B
isosilycrystin
taxifolin
It is likely that other research teams will explore the activity of these
compounds for a wide range of conditions.

Acknowledgement
We thank Professor Peter Ferenci, MD, from the Medical University of Vienna
for his helpful comments and review.

................................
Russian, it was above, but here it is again

****************  I have been taking eight capsules of Milk Thistle
(80% silymarin) extract 200mg/500mg MT powder and eight capsules of Reishi
Mushroom 4:1 extract powder (10% polysaccharides) 500 mg/200mg whole ground
mushroom for three years, along with eight teaspoons of Turmeric spice
powder per day.  I have no outward symptoms of Hepatitis C nor do I feel
'sick'.  These tonics were suggested in a book 'Herbs, Hepatitis C and the
Liver'  by H Buhner.  My blood work is all in the 'normal' range and has
been for quite a while.  I highly recommend the  book as a guide through the
maze of complementary treatments and tonics on the market.\\\\\

******************  I mail order for
the MT and Reishi from WholeHealthProducts.com  Very reasonable if you go on
the maintenance plan.*************

cactus jammies