Does anyone take Milk Thistle to protect their liver from medications. It is recommended for alcohol over-indulgence. I told the two Natural-paths that I had consultations with that I take it, and have off and on for 11 years. They both said good.

based on some reseach done though i am no on pd medics

This suggests that it directly addresses the inflammatory actin at the core of PD. I notice also the name J.S. Hong who is one of the NIH team with Bin Liu who have been in front on some very interesting stuff.


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&DbFrom=pubmed&Cmd=Link&LinkName=p ubmed_pubmed&LinkReadableName=Related%20Articles&I dsFromResult=12473078&ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSys tem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_Dis coveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&log$=relatedarticl es&logdbfrom=pubmed


1: Eur J Neurosci. 2002 Dec;16(11):2103-12.

Silymarin protects dopaminergic neurons against lipopolysaccharide-induced
neurotoxicity by inhibiting microglia activation.

Wang MJ, Lin WW, Chen HL, Chang YH, Ou HC, Kuo JS, Hong JS, Jeng KC.

Department of Education and Research, Taichung Veterans General Hospital,
Taichung 40705, Taiwan.

An inflammatory response in the central nervous system mediated by activation of
microglia is a key event in the early stages of the development of
neurodegenerative diseases. Silymarin is a polyphenolic flavanoid derived from
milk thistle that has anti-inflammatory, cytoprotective and anticarcinogenic
effects. In this study, we first investigated the neuroprotective effect of
silymarin against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neurotoxicity in mesencephalic
mixed neuron-glia cultures. The results showed that silymarin significantly
inhibited the LPS-induced activation of microglia and the production of
inflammatory mediators, such as tumour necrosis factor-alpha and nitric oxide
(NO), and reduced the damage to dopaminergic neurons. Therefore, the inhibitory
mechanisms of silymarin on microglia activation were studied further. The
production of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) was studied in
LPS-stimulated BV-2 cells as a model of microglia activation. Silymarin
significantly reduced the LPS-induced nitrite, iNOS mRNA and protein levels in a
dose-dependent manner. Moreover, LPS could induce the activation of p38
mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and c-jun N-terminal kinase but not
extracellular signal-regulated kinase. The LPS-induced production of NO was
inhibited by the selective p38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580. These results indicated
that the p38 MAPK signalling pathway was involved in the LPS-induced NO
production. However, the activation of p38 MAPK was not inhibited by silymarin.
Nevertheless, silymarin could effectively reduce LPS-induced superoxide
generation and nuclear factor kappaB (NF-kappaB) activation. It suggests that the
inhibitory effect of silymarin on microglia activation is mediated through the
inhibition of NF-kappaB activation.


PMID: 12473078 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

i don't have pd, but i have taken milk thistle daily for years.

i had one blood work come back with my liver function low. i don't take rx's and don't drink. my dr had know idea why it was low, but suggested i take milk thistle and sam-e. btw he is a DO not an MD.

liver function is great now.

for about 11 years also...after i picked up hepatitis a in c.a. i was SICK. the liver just seems to shut down while it runs it's course over several weeks time. according to the doc i saw i had a complete recovery - but i can't help but wonder if it was the precipitating factor in the pd stress load, as the pd symptoms started soon after...plus it was a stressful trip. so....silymarin/milk thistle it is.

I hear you. Stress seems to be a fairly common denominator. I wonder if we should be paying more attention to keeping our stress under control than some of our other symptoms. Yeah, I know, our symptoms cause us stress. It is a vicious circle. Anyone out there with ideas on natural remedies to help keep our stress at a dull roar. Better still no roar at all.

I know that sleep is important so I take Melatonin. Even my renown neuro takes it and was quite surprised when I mentioned that I took it sometimes. Like share the information. If it is good for you perhaps it is good for me. All they want to talk about is pd meds, when, how much, etc. I would just give them a printout when I walked in the door. It made it easier for them but I still didn't get that extra time to discuss other things so I could walk away feeling empowered.

Stress and inflammation are what PD is all about. <Note for the record - Unless otherwise stated there is an implied "IMHO" with anything I ever post >

An interesting word is "anxiolytic" meaning something that counters anxiety.

Using that as a start I wandered around Medline a while and found this

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum

The abstract is about lavender but if you click on "All related articles" at the right hand side of the screen you will get 100 similar reports on various plants as to if they work, safety, etc. Names arein latin but that's why god made search engines.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m...6/ai_n19492815

Liver enzymes were elevated. I blamed it on Tylenol 3 I have taken for years for PD-related pain. Liver function is now normal and I still take the Milk Thistle (and the Tylenol 3).

I'm surprised, though, that neither the neuro nor my "regular" doctor (an internist) had heard of it.

J-