Silymarin Milk Thistle

        Well it's Friday, so I thought I would add another hangover helper to the quiver.  I'm sure many of you have heard of milk thistle used as a liver supplement to treat liver disease and help protect the liver against toxins.  This has been shown in several studies to be affective over the long term, but I have found that acute doses of milk thistle, before, after, and/or during alcohol intake have an excellent affect of lessening resulting next day hangover.  One of the reasons you get a hangover is due to dehydration (alcohol is a diuretic) and toxin buildup (introduced in the alcohol itself and created as a byproduct of metabolizing it).  This works because the active ingredient, silymarin, has strong protective effect on the liver from the bombardment of toxins it faces in your standard night of partying.  It also helps the liver process the toxins it does have to process (levels which vary as you go from Belvedere to Barton's), the end result is more efficient detoxification during the night and more effective detoxification overall.  This leaves less of those pesky toxins to rattle around your brain and body when you are trying to take advantage of a prime Saturday or Sunday morning.
        My advise, take double whatever the bottle recommends the throughout day before and maybe even a few during the night, as well as with brunch the next day(any type of pills on an empty stomach the morning after may produce unpleasant results).  Here's to happy and perhaps slightly healthier raging.