Holly: Milk thistle/silymarin

[Guest guest]

Holly,

I've been taking the milk thistle for years, generally in the cheapest form

possible (usually caps). The one I'm using now is 175 mg. standardized extract,

for which the bottle recommends one a day, which is roughly what I take.

As far as I can know, it doesn't interact with Graves' symptoms or medications

(unlike, say, gotu kola, which is a stimulant, or garlic, which may stimulate

the immune system).

When I had hepatitis B in 1979, doctors said I would have it forever, possibly

as a carrier and with other long-term effects. But when I had a viral load test

done this summer, there was no trace of the virus in my system (of course my

doctor explained I had never had it). The other thing I've done was to watch my

liver tests over the years, and at one point (1980s), when they began looking

bad, I did an intestinal cleansing program (fiber drinks plus herbal caps to

clean the intestines--I used a package by Yerba Prima). Three months of that got

my numbers back in the normal range.