Milk Thistle Dosage And Usage Suggestions

Milk thistle is an herb with many health benefits, most notably on the liver.

Here are some milk thistle dosage and usage suggestions which you may find useful. Suggested dosages for milk thistle extract, capsules, tinctures and seeds are covered.

Forms of the Milk Thistle Herb to Take

• Milk thistle can be taken in various form, including as dried seeds, tea bags, tinctures, fluid extracts, capsules, or tablets. [9][1]

• Most experts recommend using milk thistle extracts standardized for silymarin content over using crude formulas. [9]

• Milk thistle does not have good water solubility and thus does not work very well as an herbal tea. Capsule supplements or herbal extracts may be the best forms of milk thistle to use. [4]

• Phyllis A.Balch, CNC, mentions that the best way to use milk thistle is through silymarin gel-caps. According to Balch, milk thistle is not as effective when used in forms such as seeds, tinctures and teas – these forms of the herb can cause slight diarrhea. [3]

Suggested Milk Thistle Dosages

There are several milk thistle dosage suggestions for the silymarin extract form of the herb.

• A common dosage for the herb is 200mg of milk thistle extract standardized to 70% silymarin, to be taken twice to thrice each day. [5]

• Another suggestion is 70-210mg of silymarin 3 times per day. [9]

• Mark Stengler, ND, recommends taking a 200 to 250mg capsule of milk thistle extract standardized to 80% to 85% silymarin, thrice per day. That is roughly equal to consuming 480 to 600mg of silymarin per day. [11]

• For persons who have liver disease or whose liver function is impaired, using 420 to 600mg of silymarin each day from milk thistle extract standardized to 80% silymarin content seems to be a good dosage range suggested by various research studies. Improvements to one’s health condition should be felt in about 8 to 12 weeks. Milk thistle extract can be used as an extended herbal treatment for those with chronic liver ailments. [6]

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