[Chemar]

I got this in my Physician's First Watch newsletter today.......interesting reading that last few lines eh!!!

Meta-Analysis Finds Echinacea Has Benefits in Cold Prevention and Treatment


A meta-analysis concludes that echinacea supplements decrease the incidence and duration of the common cold.


The analysis, published early online in Lancet Infectious Diseases, suggests that echinacea decreases the odds of developing a cold by 58% and shortens the duration of a cold by 1.4 days. The analysis included 14 studies, which together enrolled about 1400 subjects to study echinacea's effect on incidence and 1600 to study the effect on cold duration.


The authors note that more than 800 U.S. products contain echinacea. They caution that before the plant becomes standard cold treatment, safety studies and large-scale randomized studies are needed, controlling for the dose, the species of echinacea used, the quality of its preparation, the method of cold induction, and the objectivity of the studies' endpoints. Also of note, according to the authors, is that echinacea is an inhibitor of cytochrome P450, and thus may interact with other drugs.


[Editor's note: Although Lancet Infectious Diseases has released this article from embargo, it has not posted the article on its website. Rather than delay coverage further while awaiting that posting, we have provided a link to the Lancet's early-release page, where the article will eventually appear.]

Link to Lancet's early online publication website (Subscription required)

[lou_lou]

dear chemar,
when I lived in VA. Beach in the 1990's - I had a neighbor that was told me to
take it to strengthen my immune system, because I was sick with a bad chest colds (yearly) and laryngitis sp?
I took it and goldenseal for a short amount of time, the tinctures!
good brands and I have been well -except for PD?

ever since! and that has been well over a decade!
gawd? I'm talkin in decades!! hahaha!
PS: you are not suppose to use it more than a 2 week span - but I use it every year!

love ~

[possumtrot]

I wonder if there is a list or something of meds the echinacea interferes with...I'd love to try taking it but hesitate due to the meds issue.

[Chemar]

hi possumtrot

here is a list of drugs that you can check from to see if the one(s) you take would react badly with Echinacea

it is from the Drug Interactions section of iHerb's Health Encyclopedia/Natural Pharmacy

hope that helps

[InHisHands]

Garlic and echinacea, as well as vitamin c really help with colds! (as well as ear infections and that type of thing)

We use only natural supplements like that to help with colds, and they work faster than any medicine that we've tried in the past.

Thanks for posting that article, Cheri!