2 replies to this topic

[hanzsolo]

Hi all

Sorry if this has been asked before, but I've read and heard so many mixed things that I don't know what's true and what's not.

I currently take several supplements and several meds (dexedrine, memantine, benzos prn etc) and would like to try and protect my liver as much as possible. Plus boost glutathione..

I know silymarin affects CYP pathways in the liver but heard only higher doses would affect absorption.

Would taking milk thistle affect the absorption of my medications?
If yes, how?
And if yes, is it only over a certain dosage of milk thistle ?
What about if I took the milk thistle at night away from all my medications?

In addition, are there any other supplements or herbs I should be using to help protect my liver? Or a combination of things?

Renewlife had an interesting combo called liverDTX, not sure if it's any good or not..

Any help or feedback would be much appreciated

Thanks

[hav]

Here's a decent summary of Milk Thistle drug interactions: http://silymarin.com...ug.interactions ... note the warning regarding birth control medications.

I might add that I've also heard recommendations, sometimes conflicting, regarding interaction with statins and other cholesterol lowering treatments. It's believed that it also lowers cholesterol, suggesting that if you take drugs for that purpose, you might need to lower your dosage. On the other hand, I've heard it suggested that if you take statins, it might help lower or limit liver damage statins might cause. Suggest you at least monitor liver health if you start taking them together, at least as frequently as when statins were first prescribed to you.

Howard

[niner]

I currently take several supplements and several meds (dexedrine, memantine, benzos prn etc) and would like to try and protect my liver as much as possible. Plus boost glutathione..

I know silymarin affects CYP pathways in the liver but heard only higher doses would affect absorption.

Would taking milk thistle affect the absorption of my medications?
If yes, how?
And if yes, is it only over a certain dosage of milk thistle ?
What about if I took the milk thistle at night away from all my medications?

Milk thistle components have a lot of different activities that could affect drug bioavailability. In a quick pubmed search, I found that silybin is an inhibitor of P450s 1A1, 3A4, and 2C9. This will tend to make drugs that are metabolized strictly by these enzymes last longer and reach higher concentrations. Silibin is also an inhibitor of the P-glycoprotien efflux pump, which acts to pump certain kinds of molecules out of the bloodstream and back into the intestinal lumen. It's an inhibitor of major glucuronosyl transferases, as well. These tend to be involved in the excretion of polyphenols, among other things. Again, both of these activities would lengthen and intensify the bioavailability of compounds that are opposed by those mechanisms. The only thing I saw that would make a drug work less good was the inhibition of bacterial beta glucuronidase, which might be involved in the activation of glucuronide prodrugs. Maybe if a glucuronide metabolite were to end up in the intestine, it could be cleaved and reabsorbed.

All these effects are going to be dosage dependent, and the bioavailability of milk thistle isn't very good, so you'd probably have to take a lot to see these effects. Taking it away from meds would help, to the extent that you'd have any effect with those drugs.