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Acute liver failure

My grandfather has been diagnosed with acute liver failure very recently and doctors have said there’s nothing more they can do. Would it be harmful to give him milk thistle at this point?
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363281 tn?1643235611
COMMUNITY LEADER
Hello~I am so sorry that you grandfather is having these issues.

I would definitely try the Milk Thistle, I would use the tincture instead of capsules as it gets into the system faster. Other herbs to try are:  turmeric, dandelion root, resveratrol, and green tea.

If there is a naturopathic physician in your area, I would also see him/her, they have other ideas as well such as a liver detox program which helps lots of folks.
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134578 tn?1693250592
I'm sorry to hear about your grandfather. It does not sound like milk thistle would be harmful, but it might not do much good either. If your grandfather had hepatitis C, the literature suggests it won't help. If the issue is jaundice, cirrhosis, liver cancer, or fatty liver disease, it might help to ease inflammation and maybe even promote some cell repair. In neither case would it hurt him, but again, using a botanical when someone is diagnosed with acute liver failure is a pretty unlikely way to impact it very much. Is he on the list for a possible liver transplant?
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2 Comments
He is not. They waited too long before approving him for it and things progressively got worse and there were other speed bumps along the way. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t doing any harm by trying herbal remedies. If there’s nothing more the doctors can do then what can we try as a last resort at home, you know?
There seems to be no reason not to try the milk thistle. It doesn't sound like it will do much to solve the problem but it sounds like it might (at best) ease some of the inflammation. Again, I'm sorry your grandfather is in this situation.
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