Actually, I have several autoimmune diseases (lupus, sjogrens and APS), and I find that I can take echinacea short term with no problems at all - up to 5 - 7 days. I wouldn't take it for any longer though, but seeing there is the odd situation that I find it extremely useful for (recurrent boils springs to mind - it works better than antibiotics for this) then I do take it without a problem. I watch for signs that it is flaring my autoimmune problems, but to date it never has.

I know it was one of my doctors who told me this was ok - I just can't remember which!

hth

raglet