dogs are individuals milk thistle draft 1
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Rita Hogan: Hi, this is Rita Hogan and welcome to the Dogs Our Individuals Podcast. I'm a clinical canine Herbalist, and I've been practicing for over 20 years. This podcast is all about your dog through an herbal lens. So let's get to it and dive right in. Hello everyone. This is Rita Hogan with the Dogs Our Individuals podcast.
This is one of my many episodes for you guys on the go. You can share it with friends and family who love dogs or who maybe they love herbs. I am going to talk about milk this in this mini podcast, and. Milk. This is pretty popular. I think it's a little misunderstood. I know that I've learned a lot about milk this in the last like six to seven years, and I'm always learning.
I think everyone should try to be open to new perspectives, new research, new understanding. Of these plants that we use a lot of. And milk thistle is one of the most highly used plants, it seems like pretty much on the planet. So Milk this's, Latin name is Siba Ma. That's my pronunciation, and you can pronounce it any way you like.
Really, it's sweet. And it really does make a nutritive tonic. And a tonic is something that slowly improves function throughout the body, and nutritive nourish your dog's entire body. And the taste of sweet in the body is really associated with nutritive and anything. That provides nutrition for the body and a lot of times milk, this isn't looked in kind of at, well, within the lens of nutrition.
It's always talked about as far as its affiliation with the liver, but providing nutrients and opening the body up for nutrition with that sweet undertone of flavor. Really does help you understand this plant better. Another thing about milk thistle is it's moistening and it's soothing and it has like an oily nature to it.
The seed does, and I'm talking about the seed today by the way, and the seed is bitter. And as a bitter, it really works. On digestion and milk. This works indirectly, I would say, on digestion through the liver and the gallbladder. And it does have some affinity towards the kidney, which also people don't really talk about all that much in kind of lay communities where, you know, we're just talking about what milk fi can do for us.
Definitely it has some affinity towards the kidney. It can help support the kidney, and I find that that's important because a kidney function is often overlooked in the big picture of liver health. One of the things I have noticed with milk this is that if the liver. And the kidney are quite weak.
Sometimes you can get some incontinence with using milk thistle, and if that's the case you want to, I would use a simple and a simple is, One single herb that you're going to use and use that only to try to improve function. And I would use some, a simple for the kidneys and work with someone to help improve kidney function.
And then you can try using milk. This again. If you're using a tincture of milk, this and you get incontinence, then I would switch to a powder and use a lot less of it. A lot of times dosage can be the deciding mark in herbs having side effects. And yes, herbs can have side effects, especially when they're not used, properly, or they're, the herb isn't well indicated for your dog.
So milk this. It helps cleanse the blood and it brings down your dog's toxic load. And this increases circulation and helps push through stagnancy in the body. And when you push through stagnancy, that means that things are getting stuck, energy's getting stuck. You can decrease inflammation. And that's what you know, that's what it's all about, Decreasing inflammation in the body.
A lot of milk thistle that's used. Is what would be called standardized milk. This, and that is a standardized level of the active ingredient called Sylimarin or CI and ci. Those are your two active ingredients that have been discussed via clinical studies and science. milk thistle has hundreds upon hundreds of constituents, and I feel they are all needed.
So if you're gonna use milk thistle long term, I would use just the seed in tincture or powdered form. And if you're gonna. Use it for like high liver enzymes. I would use a blend of standardized milk. This and regular milk, this seed, and there's a company called Oregons Wild Harvest. They have a website, it's oregons wild harvest.com, and they make a really good blend of milk, this seed and standardize extract.
I use that brand a lot. And then there is Herbalist and Alchemist. They have a good milk thistle and for tincture, Animal Essentials and Herb Farm, I carry those in my store. I also make milk this tincture. So there are some choices there. One of the things that milk this does to increase property detoxification in the liver is it increases gluco, which supports cellular regeneration of liver, tissue, milk.
This is definitely known as a liver function restore, and it helps protect the liver from being damaged. I would say acute and chronic situations, and it really helps utilize antioxidants in the body to help bring down free radicals and oxidation, so you don't want a lot of free radicals hanging out in the body.
You want to provide a lot of antioxidants in the diet through foods and nutrition and herbs along with milk. This when you use. So, for instance, you could use chaga mushroom if it's well indicated, or you could use maritime pine bark if it's well indicated. You could use things like phytoplankton if it's well indicated to help provide extra antioxidants.
I'll do a little short on antioxidants and go through a whole bunch of 'em with you next time so that you can have a good list of antioxidants to choose. Milk thistle is also called Holy Thistle, or St. Mary's Thistle, or Lady Thistle. Those are common names for milk thistle. Most of the time here in the United States, you're gonna hear the word milk thistle as it's common name, and then the Latin name, which is Silly Bum Marin.
Or it can be Cardis Marias, depending on who you're talking to. Cardis Marias. Is an older Latin name for milk. This milk, this is very sustainably grown and its toxicity is very, very low. And toxicity doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to cause death. It means that there are side effects happening and it's given in too large of a dose, so it doesn't, Toxicity doesn't always, You know, lethal.
Just a reminder on that one. Most milk milk, this is picked between July and September, but you can usually find extracts all year round. Again, we use the seeds a lot in herbalism, but you can also use the flowers. I like milk, this flour essence, and you can use the leaves too, but mainly the seeds are used for canine herbalism, so, One thing to note is milk.
This is high in linns and linns repair liver cells and they help prevent oxidation and they protect your dog from toxins. So milk, this supports both phase one and phase two. Liver detoxification, which is super important, and it has an affinity towards the liver, the lung, the spleen, the heart, and the kidneys.
So it's very well rounded. It's oily. Again, it's sweet. As far as energetics, I would say it's neutral. Pretty neutral. Most dogs can handle it. If you don't know what I'm talking about as far as energetics, check out my energetics course on canine herbalism.com. So milk. This really does excel for dry conditions and it can also be used for heat.
It's very balancing. Some of the things that milk this is good for is one high liver enzymes. Definitely dryness. It can also be used for dampness. Again, it's balancing using pharmaceutical. I find it good for those dogs that kind of have pushy in your face behavior. Definitely use it if you're going to use pharmaceutical, flee and tick prevention.
You should keep your dog on milk thistle the entire time. You have your dog on something like that. It's good for chronic diarrhea. It's good for dogs with anal gland issues. It's wonderful for dogs that are easily agitated or have high anxiety. It's an anti-inflammatory and it's an antihistamine, so it helps dogs with sensitivities or also people call those allergies.
I have a lot to say about milk this, so I'm not sure if it's the best thing for a short, but if you enjoy this type of information, you can check out my monthly monographs on canine herbalism.com, and I have a really great. Very lengthy monograph of milk. This on there, and you'll be hearing more about milk.
This as we progress through a lot of these podcasts, the suggested dose for a liquid milk. This is two drops for extra small dogs. Four drops for medium dogs, six drops for large dogs, eight drops for giant dogs. Given twice a day, I usually will drip that on a treat cuz it's very bitter or add water for taste.
Well that pretty much rounds it up for milk thistle. My podcast is sponsored by two great companies, one adored Beast, APO Carry, and the other real mushrooms.com. So please visit their websites and check out what they have to offer, or you can find their products on my website, canine herbalist.com.
We'll talk to you soon. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dogs or Individuals. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app. And don't forget, sharing is caring. So if you love dogs or individuals podcast, share it with your friends and family who love dogs. This will help me so much and remember.
As a listener, I appreciate you much. Thanks to Resident Media, my podcast production team. This podcast is produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. Any questions, email the show. Go to canine herbalist.com, click podcast, contact in the menu, and then fill out that form and I'll answer any questions here online.
Okay, so thank you so much for listening to this episode. Of dogs, our individuals podcast, and I'm gonna talk to you in our next episode.
