4 ms·

Couldn’t the patient just take a bunch of the milk thistle supplements available at most pharmacies?

EdwardDiego 4y ago
Given the link between milk thistle usage over time and thyroid disorder, I'm amazed it's available.
ceejayoz 4y ago
"derived from the milk thistle plant" likely involves more than just "eat some powered plant"; Wikipedia seems to indicate it involves more purification steps than the supplement form of things.
- colechristensen 4y ago
  There’s a difference between purifying and using something as a basis for synthesis. The question is, why not the plant itself? (Dried and powdered in a readily available pill)
  - adrr 4y ago
    Dose is probably really low if you just used dried milk thistle and you need to refining and purify it to take via an IV. Same goes with acetylcysteine for Tylenol a overdose, you need to get it via an IV and you can’t just take the over the counter supplement.
    - 1letterunixname 4y ago
      Also, every household that has Tylenol should have, and co-administer, N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) because it's hepatoprotective. The stinky sulfurous supplement that the FDA partially banned.
  - EdwardDiego 4y ago
    Silychristin[0] and mycotoxins[1]? [0]: https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/157/4/1694/2422745?login=false https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/157/4/1694/2422745?log... [1]: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.5b02105 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.5b02105
- hinkley 4y ago
  Or like the cancer drug from yews takes something like a handful of trees per patient. You’re not just gonna chew on few cubic feet of bark.
  - ehecatl42 4y ago
    That will kill you. Taxus baccata is highly toxic... “slips of yew, silvered in the moon's eclipse” and all that.
    - hinkley 4y ago
      I should have said “took” as I learned recently that they now synthesize the chemical directly. You often have to leach something out of a plant to get to the good stuff without damaging your liver of kidneys with the bad stuff.
- thaumasiotes 4y ago
  The blurb notes this drug is given intravenously; it's also possible that there's plenty of it in a raw milk thistle, but eating it doesn't work. (Or, of course, that there isn't much if any in a raw milk thistle, and eating it doesn't work.)

Given the link between milk thistle usage over time and thyroid disorder, I'm amazed it's available.

"derived from the milk thistle plant" likely involves more than just "eat some powered plant"; Wikipedia seems to indicate it involves more purification steps than the supplement form of things.

colechristensen 4y ago
There’s a difference between purifying and using something as a basis for synthesis. The question is, why not the plant itself? (Dried and powdered in a readily available pill)
- adrr 4y ago
  Dose is probably really low if you just used dried milk thistle and you need to refining and purify it to take via an IV. Same goes with acetylcysteine for Tylenol a overdose, you need to get it via an IV and you can’t just take the over the counter supplement.
  - 1letterunixname 4y ago
    Also, every household that has Tylenol should have, and co-administer, N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) because it's hepatoprotective. The stinky sulfurous supplement that the FDA partially banned.
- EdwardDiego 4y ago
  Silychristin[0] and mycotoxins[1]? [0]: https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/157/4/1694/2422745?login=false https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/157/4/1694/2422745?log... [1]: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.5b02105 https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.5b02105
hinkley 4y ago
Or like the cancer drug from yews takes something like a handful of trees per patient. You’re not just gonna chew on few cubic feet of bark.
- ehecatl42 4y ago
  That will kill you. Taxus baccata is highly toxic... “slips of yew, silvered in the moon's eclipse” and all that.
  - hinkley 4y ago
    I should have said “took” as I learned recently that they now synthesize the chemical directly. You often have to leach something out of a plant to get to the good stuff without damaging your liver of kidneys with the bad stuff.
thaumasiotes 4y ago
The blurb notes this drug is given intravenously; it's also possible that there's plenty of it in a raw milk thistle, but eating it doesn't work. (Or, of course, that there isn't much if any in a raw milk thistle, and eating it doesn't work.)