Is milk thistle a hangover cure?

It does not prevent intoxication and is not an emergency liver fix. Evidence supports gradual liver-support use, not acute recovery.

How do people commonly use Milk Thistle?

Standardized silymarin extracts: 200–400 mg/day (80% silymarin) Tea is weak — supplements are preferred for therapeutic effect

Chapter 1 of 13

Milk Thistle

The Essentials

Silymarin — a complex of flavonolignans (silybin A/B, silychristin, silydianin, isosilybin) — is the active fraction. The whole crushed seed contains 1.5–3% silymarin.

The best clinical evidence supports non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) — meta-analyses (a study that pools the results of many trials) show modest reductions in ALT and AST across multiple RCTs.

The seed tea is weak — bioavailability (how much of it your body can actually absorb) of silymarin from a hot-water infusion (a drink made by steeping the plant in hot water) is low. Standardised extracts (70–80% silymarin) are the therapeutic form.