Why an alcohol tincture and not a pill?

[Admin]

We are occasionally asked why we chose Alcohol as the base for our extracts when it is thought to irritate the liver.  Silymarin, the known active bio-chemical in Milk Thistle, is soluble only in alcohol.

When taking this product correctly, by adding a few dropper-fulls of tincture to a cup of hot water, the majority of alcohol evaporates out.  Prepared this way, the trace amounts of remaining alcohol act as a guide, taking the formula into the bloodstream and liver quickly.  What’s more, alcohol has been used medicinally for over 5000 years in Traditional Chinese Medicine and its properties are very well known in this medicine.  Alcohol brings the herbs quickly into the body, and guides them to where they are needed, the liver.  It is the most effective method we have for getting the formula to its desired destination.                                                 

[brad]

should I drink alcohol and take milk thistle at the same time?

[Admin]

No, I am not saying to drink alcohol with milk thistle pills and/or seed.  I am saying that when milk thistle has been extracted in alcohol, it will be absorbed and utilized better.  This is my clinical experience, and no double blind study has been conducted to date to test this exact point.  That said, roughly 5000 years of other physician's clinical experience is similar within the lineage of Chinese Medicine. 

What western science has proven to date, however, also points in the same direction;  that the active ingredient, Silymarin, is alcohol soluble and not very soluble in water alone.  A powdered extract of milk thistle made from a water tea concentrate is roughly 20% silymarin if no alcohol is used to make the tea and no silymarin is added in via other means.  (contrast this with an alcohol extract that is roughly 80% silymarin and 100% bioavailable). 

To clarify my point in the first post above, the total alcohol volume of an alcohol extract when consumed according to the directions is around 1/20th of an ounce of vodka prior to the alcohol evaporating out in the hot water.  After that, at least half of the alcohol evaporates out leaving only trace amounts to carry the formula into the blood stream.