Skip to content

Johnson Vet Services

Small Animal Veterinarian – Marietta, Georgia

Menu
  • About Dr Johnson
  • Hours
  • I’m Not Dying or Selling
  • Location
  • My Promise
  • New Articles
  • Recommended Things
  • Resources
  • Sitemap
  • Staff
  • Welcome to Johnson Veterinary Services
Menu

milkthistle

Posted on February 19, 2019

Milk Thistle (or Denamarin) as an Alternative to Urso / UDCA

Milk Thistle has traces of some of the dehydrocholic acids that Bear Bile, and Urso contain. Since it’s a weed, manufacturers jumped on it because they were able to provide small amounts of ursodehydrocholic acid (UDCA/TUDCA) essentially from ‘free or no cost’ resources. (Milk thistle pods)
There’s another one called Denamarin that has Milk Thistle too, and they have sold as “as good as Urso” –
There is no reflection on liver enzymes (I tried these Urso alternatives on patients a few years back when they were first identified) using Milk Thistle or Denamarin because of two things:
They don’t use anywhere near enough to make a difference, in Denamarin. Still, many if not most vets don’t read any fine print, so they jumped on THAT fad with both feet.
Milk Thistle lacks so much potency, that you would have to really load it on. Like, grams of material to get milligrams of UCDA, Manufacturers and marketing weasels know that people will snap things up as long as it merely ‘contains’ the vital compound whether we’re talking DHEA, ursodehydrocholic acid, or Echinaceia, Acai, any other buzz word that’s been built up.
Having an actual ‘amount sufficient’ is often, if not usually, the deficiency.
I said all that to say THIS, there are alternatives to Urso if you are interested. Legitimate ones.
This article is a relatively recent translation of a Chinese document which did credible work on the active molecules in Bear bile, and the synthetic Urso version. They also look at other animal bile substitutes and there are passages that actually describe how these biles / UCDA’s even help the liver and gut work better.
  • It summarizes by saying the closest analogue to Bear Bile is Mouse Bile. Ha ha ha
  • The closest thing is the synthetic Urso.
  • You can get good results (if not just as good) with a combination of Cow and Pig biles. I don’t know the ratio to use, where to get these in a standardized format but the combination would be used about 10-15mg/lb once a day.
  • They derived also that Coptis rhizoma/berberine plant sources are excellent alternatives but a hard sell in TCM and I don’t know how to dose it. I’m interested to try that on patients but it would be a select few who want to ‘try something new’ and untested.
  • As with Urso itself, any bile or UDCA / DCA can result in diarrhea.
Doc

Shop Now?

Recent Posts

  • Great article on how to use salt in aquariums and ponds
  • A quick little note about Ned King, internet B0nus and 0pportunity Guy
  • I Bet You Didn’t Know About “Leptin” And Not Knowing It’s Killing Your Dog
  • Five Puppy Rearing Tips Of Importance
  • This is the BEST Filtration for Aquariums for Simplicity, Price and So Much More

Archives

  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • June 2021
  • March 2021
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018

Fish diseases, Dog and Cat Health, Dr Erik Johnson, DrJohnson.com

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
©2023 Johnson Vet Services | Design: Newspaperly WordPress Theme