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Norman Allan
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Raven asks, "I have a friend receiving chemotherapy at MD Anderson in Houston. Does Milk Thistle supplements interfere with chemotherapy when lab results are indicating stress to the liver? ..."

Milk Thistle protects the liver and helps it to regenerate. It would be an excellent adjuct to chemotherapy.

Generally speaking, orthodox medicine works by blocking functions (e.g. "beta blockers") or cutting things out of you, and the more you medicate the more brittle the system becomes, while holistic medicine works by enhancing the bodies own healing capacities. So orthodox medicine may tend to interfere with complimentary medicine, but complimentary medicine will tend to enhance orthodox treatment.

Usually we will work with the "treatment for most conditions" with cancer and with chemo. You need to decide which arm of the treatment, detox or immune boost, to start with. Detox can be harsh on the system, so we’ll often start with immune boost. Also, Siberian ginseng, Astragalus, and Reishi are all reputed to be of value during chemo: both to enhance the effects of the chemo and to protect against its toxicity. (But the detox arm of the program will do that too!. Both arms, detox and immune support improve overall health and that will augment the chemo.)

I would also add specific anticancer herbs to the detox formula. You will need to tell me more about your friend.