Milk Thistle for Hangover

Silybum marianum
(milk thistle)

Milk thistle is an herb that has been used for at least 2000 years to treat liver and gall bladder disease. It is called milk thistle because it is traditionally used, as well, to help nursing mothers build and maintain a plentiful supply of milk. Milk thistle has recently attracted the attention of scientists, who are studying it as a treatment for liver disease, for hepatitis C, and for viral hepatitis. (It is also currently being studied as a possible complementary treatment for cancer and HIV patients.) Milk thistle’s efficacy in treating liver disease has not been clearly established in clinical trials, but the evidence so far is promising enough that scientists feel it warrants further study, and European doctors routinely prescribe milk thistle to their patients with liver problems.

Milk thistle is also commonly used in Europe and Great Britain as a hangover remedy, because it helps to minimize the damage to the liver from poisons that are released as the liver metabolizes alcohol and the preservatives that are used in the distillation and fermentation process. As the liver metabolizes alcohol, it converts the alcohol to acetylaldehyde, which causes nausea, vomiting, and sweating. Eventually, the liver metabolizes the acetylaldehyde into acetate, which is harmless. If you have been drinking a very dark alcohol, such as red wine (especially cheap red wine), brandy, or port, the liver will also have to metabolize the preservatives in the wine, and the preservatives in darker alcoholic beverages are metabolized not into acetylaldehyde, as alcohol is, but into formaldehyde (embalming fluid). Cheap red wine, whisky, and fruit brandy also commonly contain methanol, which is broken down by the liver into formic acid – which, coincidentally, is a poison that ants spray at their attackers. As long as you have formaldehyde and formic acid circulating throughout your body, you are likely to feel terrible, experiencing nausea, vomiting, shakes, muscle aches, and other symptoms of toxicity. You are experiencing what it feels like to be poisoned, because you have been. Milk thistle helps the liver to metabolize these toxins more efficiently and with less damage to the liver itself.

Using Milk Thistle to Get Rid of a Hangover

Method

• Take one or two capsules of milk thistle with water.
• Take a dropperful of milk thistle extract in juice or water, or alone.
• Alternatively, you can make tea using milk thistle, but the dose will not be as high as it would if you took it in capsule or extract form.

Why It Works

Milk thistle contains silymarin, an antioxidant that helps to protect the liver from free radicals. One of the ways in which alcohol damages the liver is by producing free radicals that damage liver cells. Milk thistle not only blocks free radicals from damaging liver cells, but also stimulates the growth of new cells.

Precautions

Milk thistle is generally recognized as safe, so safe that it is commonly used by nursing mothers (to increase their milk supply, not to get over hangovers – it is not safe for breastfeeding mothers to drink enough alcohol to stand in need of a hangover remedy). It has very few side effects. Some people find that it has a laxative effect, and others say it gives them an upset stomach or causes bloating.

People who have allergic reactions to ragweed, chrysanthemums, marigolds, or daisies should not take milk thistle, however, as it is in the same plant family and has been known to cause anaphylactic reactions.

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