The surprising herbal tea that can improve liver health
Maybe those “pretty weeds” dotting your front lawn are more valuable than you thought! It turns out that tea made from dandelions may have a variety of benefits for your body. Before you drink up, though, it’s important to understand what health claims could be true and which ones are a load of guff. We did a deep dive into the research and consulted a well-respected herbalist to find out the health benefits of sipping dandelion tea.
Just keep in mind that because less money goes toward funding research on plants than medicines, in most cases, there’s not enough evidence to say exactly how many glasses of tea you’d need to drink to experience the effects.
Health benefits of dandelion tea
It’s a diuretic.
Diuretics help your body get rid of extra water through urination. Both research and anecdotal evidence suggest the dandelion plant is an effective one. “In terms of diuretic effect, the leaf is much more effective as a diuretic than the root is,” says Kevin Spelman, Ph.D., M.C.P.P., a scientist who has studied this and is the founder of Health, Education & Research, a consulting firm for the natural products industry. “Although the root does have some mild diuretic effect, the leaf has good diuretic effects.”
It might support liver health.
Dandelion may be particularly helpful for hepatic inflammation, or the liver’s reaction to damage (such as what happens in the case of jaundice or hepatitis), says Spelman. “Traditionally, herbalists have used it that way, and there is modern research on this as well,” he says. “What it does is it helps you dump bile from your liver, and when you dump bile, essentially it’s like reaching in and squeezing a sponge if you will. You get the liver to dump the bile, and it takes toxins with it.”
It could be good for your kidneys.
This health benefit comes from the great antioxidant content in dandelions, which many studies have highlighted. In fact, research on animals has found that dandelion reduces kidney damage caused by diabetes and chemotherapy. “The most likely explanation is it does have a pretty significant antioxidant effect,” says Spelman. “There are some compounds in there that are very strong antioxidants, and antioxidants, generally speaking, have a protective effect on the tissues that they see.” In other words, the herb’s antioxidants (such as flavonoids and polyphenols) give a little boost to the tissues they come in contact with (like your kidneys) as they pass through your body. “The whole antioxidant literature, in terms of herbal medicines, is really overblown and overstated, but in the case of dandelion, it really does have some very significant antioxidant effects,” says Spelman.
It could ease digestive issues.
Research is limited, but it does suggest that dandelion is helpful for gastrointestinal disorders — most likely due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. However, Spelman says traditional herbalists consider dandelion to be a mild laxative because of its bitter flavour. “Almost every bitter herb will have some sort of laxative effect,” he says. “So they use it as kind of a laxative tonic, if you will, just to keep them regular.”
Its anticancer properties could be used in the future.
It’s still way too early to say definitively that dandelion could help fight cancer in human tissues, but there is some research to suggest that. In fact, one study found that dandelion root extract killed some skin cancer cells.
FAQ
How much dandelion tea do you need to drink?
Unfortunately, there’s no standard amount of dandelion tea that will provide all the benefits outlined above for every person, but even a glass a day may help. As Spelman points out, the typical American diet is low in phytonutrients — even diets considered to be healthy. “If you’re eating traditional vegetables you buy from the grocery store, those hybrids have been bred to get rid of a lot of the phytochemistry because generally, phytochemistry is bitter in flavour,” he says. So drinking dandelion tea delivers some of those nutrients to your body that it’s been missing.
Are there any potential side effects?
If you’re concerned about specific health issues, it’s always best to consult your physician before ingesting any supplement or herbal remedy. “The plant is incredibly non-toxic and is incredibly safe,” says Spelman. “The only things you have to worry about are pesticides. So, if you're picking dandelion from your lawn, and you're spraying your lawn with pesticides, that’s not so smart, right?”
The bottom line
Dandelion tea could be a healthy beverage to add to your routine. While there isn’t a ton of research on it, potential benefits range from helping your body get rid of excess water to protecting your kidneys to stimulating milk production. There are no known negative side effects to drinking dandelion tea, but if you’re worried, it’s always smart to ask your doctor first.
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