For over 2,000 years, human beings have been taking milk thistle as a medicine for liver or gallbladder problems. It’s a familiar purple and green plant, found all over the world. These days, we get our milk thistle not from the field but from a supplement container, so it’s important that the labeling of the containers is accurate.
The active part of the milk thistle is believed to be a substance called silymarin, which comes from the plant’s seeds. Silymarin is an anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant.
While studies have not made clear how much benefit milk thistle provides in treating problems like cirrhosis or jaundice, it may help in repairing liver damage from industrial toxins. It has also been known to help those with type 2 diabetes when combined with traditional diabetes treatments, because it promotes decreased blood sugar levels and improves insulin resistance. In any case, whatever health problem you’re buying milk thistle for, you’ll want to get a type containing enough silymarin to get the best results possible.
Unfortunately, independent laboratory tests of a number of milk thistle products show that they don’t contain enough silymarin, particularly not to support their claims about improving liver health. They also don’t contain enough to meet the “standardized amount” that the herbal supplement industry has set as a normal dosage. In fact, the amounts of silymarin in the products may be so low as to make the supplements useless.
Attorneys are currently investigating the following Costco milk thistle products:
- Trunature Milk Thistle
- Trunature Premium Milk Thistle
- Trunature Liver Health Complex
They are trying to determine if a class action should be filed on behalf of consumers who have bought and used them. Before they can do this, they need to speak to persons who have taken the milk thistle products, ask them which product they took, and find out whether the products were effective or not. Please contact us if you have used any of the above products, so that we can see what your experience was like.
Article Type: InvestigationTopic: Consumer