Hi everyone!
Hoping someone can help me with this, I'm really scared.
On Monday I bought some milk thistle from Holland & Barrett hoping it would do me some good. I didn't buy it for a liver problem and have never had concerns over my liver, but because I get acne and I keep reading about milk thistle being good for acne because it helps your liver take care of toxins. I brought the liquid version of it which says take 1 millilitre 3 times a day, mixed with one litre of water.
Anyway, I took it Monday night at about 12-ish, then about 20-30 minutes later noticed some slight (I must stress "slight") stabbing/sharp/electric like pain over what appears to be my liver. I thought nothing of it as prior to taking it I laughed and said to myself "hope I don't start getting liver pain after taking this!" (I also have quite bad health anxiety, so that's why).
Anyway, I don't recall any pain Tuesday morning and I took another dose of it (1 ml in a litre of water). Same story really but the pain was a little worse. I'm not sure whether the pain would have come on anyway, or whether it was brought on by the extra dose of milk thistle. Needless to say I have not taken any more milk thistle but the pain has been getting progressively worse.
It is now late Thursday night now (actually it's Friday 1:30 AM, but I still count this as Thursday :)) and the pain is not "bad" but it is uncomfortable and I'm sure it's coming from my liver.
It's behind the ribs on the right side, sort of feels like a dull bloating, squeezing or heavy sensation. Sometimes if I take a quick breath (and only a quick one) I will get a sharp pain for a second either on the right side of the liver, just under the rib cage or on my right side, and occasionally I am getting sharp-ish pains that "flash" on for a second. I also just felt some sharp-ish pains when I was leaning forward to type, stretching out my torso. Sudden movements can also bring on these sharp shooting pains. I've also been getting some slight pains towards the back. Not actually back pain, but pain towards the back of my right side and on the very right side of the back.
I am terrified I've done something awful to my liver. I thought milk thistle was GOOD for your liver? I already have health anxiety and now I'm going out of my mind. It's Christmas day tomorrow and this couldn't be happening at a worse time.
So has anyone else ever had anything happen to them after taking milk thistle? Also, if my liver was the culprit, would I have other symptoms? I've never had a liver problem, I'm 21, male, never drunk or smoked. No history of liver probs either. I do have an alcoholic uncle, who has been in hospital many times with liver issue but always seems to recover just fine. By my reasoning I deemed myself to have "good liver genes", lol. No other basis for that thought :D.
I want to add a few things in here aswell. I have Crohn's disease which I am taking care of wth some natural anti inflammatories (Boswellia, 600 mg 4 times a day) and fiber supplements (Psyllium husk, 1 gram 3 times a day). Symptoms of Crohn's are not gone but much more manageable.
I have a decreased albumin level (around 30-35) which my doctor believes to be a result of my chronic bowel inflammation, but that's been steady for a while now and was actually going up with my Crohn's improvement. I always get swelling (water retention) in my legs if it goes down, and I haven't been getting any swelling so I'm not sure it it has been affected.
I also have anemia which my doctor thinks is anemia of chronic disease (same deal as the albumin, basically). Since I have both albumin decrease and anemia, I'm pretty sure it's anemia of chronic disease. Just thought I'd mention those.
Only mentioning albumin because it's a function of the liver to produce albumin. These sympoms have only been present since taking milk thistle, so I'm not going to accept that this is my Crohn's disease, because I know it isn't.
Thanks for reading 🙂
George.
A litre of water? Perhaps that much water has given you belly ache. Sorry for not being much more helpful than this, but it's a distinct possibility that you've given yourself some wind, and that your anxiety regarding health matters has blown that windy pain out of proportion.
Eating beetroot is a good liver cleanser...but be prepared for red urine.
Agree with LemonElemi. Drinking so much water will set your Crohn's off. There is a bend in the large intestine in roughly the location you describe, which if it inflames around there will hurt all the other structures around there. Psyllium husk will expand with water, which is why it's used as a laxative, and it might have formed a mass which has upset the intestine. Another possibility is that so much water has dislodged a kidney stone: again it's in the right location, and many of the symptoms you describe are symptomatic of kidney stones.
Stop drinking so much water (obviously still drink some, but not in such large quantities all at the same time!) and if it doesn't settle down after the holiday period, see your GP. If you are still worried now, call NHS Direct.
Hi guys,
Thanks for your responses. Merry Christmas to you!
I'm not sure on whether or not it was the water that set this off, but I don't drink that much water regularely. I drink around 2-3 litres but that's spread out over the day and has never caused this sort of problem. Also I don't think this is wind, as it has been 4 days now.
I got up this morning and took my regular psyllium husk (with a cup of water) and within a few minutes the pain was back an has not subsided since. I noticed that it eased off over the night while I wasn't eating (but not completely gone). I think it is getting worse now and I'm terrified. Would I have other symptoms with a liver problem? I noticed I passed undigested food today, which is not entirely abnormal for me, but this time there seemed to be more.
I think I am going to give NHS direct a call.
Thank you.
*edit* I'm also feeling a little dizzy and my blood pressure is going from 105/44 to 115/70 and my heart is from 90-100. Why is it changing so fast? Normal BP for me is around 115-120 over 65-80
I'm also feeling very sensitive to light. I phoned NHS direct, they said take a paracetomol and call back if anything worsens. Didn't actually get to speak to a doctor, just a nurse...
Hi guys,
Thanks for your responses. Merry Christmas to you!
*edit* I'm also feeling a little dizzy and my blood pressure is going from 105/44 to 115/70 and my heart is from 90-100. Why is it changing so fast? Normal BP for me is around 115-120 over 65-80
I'm also feeling very sensitive to light. I phoned NHS direct, they said take a paracetomol and call back if anything worsens. Didn't actually get to speak to a doctor, just a nurse...
Hi George
Hope you are feeling better. You could just have a bug, you know! The changes in BP and heart rate may be due to all the fluid you consumed, as the system adjusts to the nutrients having been flushed out and now recovering. (I think that's a condition called hyponatraemia - I had it while I was trying to flush out a kidney stone and drinking lots of water.)
Keep us posted as to what happens, ok?
Very best wishes
I am having the same issue with milk thistle. I am a frequent moderately heavy drinker so I use milk thistle to clean out my liver and I took twice the normal dose the other morning and my liver felt kind of sore and swollen. This has never happened to me before with milk thistle but I think taking more than a normal dose may have irritated my liver. I'm actually quitting drinking so I was trying to clean out my liver in the wake of doing that and it scared the crap out of my and I thought I was having liver failure but there are alot of forums with people experiencing the same thing so that's good. I think I'm just going to let my liver dexot on itsi own and not drink, I don't like my liver feeling all weird from the milk like this.