Echinacea's (non) effect on colds

[bradhurley]

A paper published in today's New England Journal of Medicine concludes that taking echinacea appears to be ineffective in preventing the common cold.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/353/4/341

There's also an article about it in today's New York Times.

This is the most conclusive study I've seen to date; they tested echinacea and a placebo on 437 volunteers and found no difference in the response.

I've been using echinacea myself for 8 or 9 years, whenever I detect the first symptoms of a cold. Sometimes it has seemed to work and sometimes it hasn't. Probably what I was seeing was the effects of my body's immune system at work. My usual response to illness is to do nothing and to let my body handle it on its own. Before I started taking echinacea I noticed that sometimes the symptoms of a cold would go away on their own, without me doing anything about it. But I didn't pay much attention to how often that happened. Once I started taking echinacea, I was much more conscious of how often my symptoms went away or developed into a full-blown cold, and of course it was tempting to attribute any success to the echinacea. I suspect this is why so many people see an apparently clear cause-and-effect relationship with echinacea and colds, and why many people will remain convinced that echinacea works despite evidence from studies like this.

[The Weekenders]

$150 million worth of business shot to hell. But there will always be believers. I wonder.....

[missy]

whether you "believe" echinacea is doing something or not - be careful using this (or feverfew or chamomile) if you are allergic to ragweed. You can have a cross reaction.

[Charlene]

I've never noticed any great things from echinacea so I don't take it anymore. Zinc does seem to help a little bit. Vitamin C helps a little bit too. Staying away from people with colds is the best preventative but not always practical! Once you get sick, "Tincture of Time" is the best healer.

[TomB]

Frequent hand washing/sanitizing, they say.

[I.D.10-t]

At least it isn't as expensive as knee surgery

Man those placebo's are strong stuff!

[rh]

Interesting study. Critics are saying the dose used was too low:
http://www.herbalgram.org/default.asp?c=echinacea072605

Actually my first thought when reading the abstract was to wonder about the dosage used. A colleague pointed me to the page cited above.

I'm not involved in research, but clinical experience usually dictates some adjustment of dosage in order to obtain results. Dosages given on labels of many commercial preparations lowball the effective dose range, presumably to avoid liability since most herb preparations in the US are self-prescribed.

[ChrisA]

A paper published in today's New England Journal of Medicine concludes that taking echinacea appears to be ineffective in preventing the common cold.

Interesting, but not conclusive. I always take an -infusion- (Aka, 'tea') of echinacea. Often echinacea purpurea, which is supposed to be less effective than augustofolia, but is often easier to find. Infusions and extracts can often be very different in their properties, as room-temperature alcohol and boiling water don't have identical properties in dissolving things, especially oils. The beneficial effect might, of course, be placebo effect, or might be just that I'm drinking clear liquids...

Vitamin C and Zinc do seem to have good effect.

Garlic is also supposed to help strengthen the immune system, though I do not know of any modern medicine study confirming that. I believe there -have- been modern studies showing garlic helps with high blood pressure though, or something like that.

Of course, not all 'colds' we get are actually rhinovirus, either, many of them are actually mild flus or the like, but people don't always distinguish them correctly.

--Chris

[kkrell]

Goldenseal, often found in preparations in combination with Echinacea, is probably more effective against infections. I think Echinacea is supposed to have more of a benefit to mucus membranes.

Kevin Krell

[Flyingcursor]

The best thing I've ever tried I learned from this board. Rinsing your nasal passages with warm saline. Nothing works better for a good cleansing.

[kkrell]

The best thing I've ever tried I learned from this board. Rinsing your nasal passages with warm saline. Nothing works better for a good cleansing.

You can also use Alkalol, which is an alkaline solution. Part of my treatment for paralysed vocal cord, including knocking out the acid from acid reflux.

Kevin Krell

[Flyingcursor]

The best thing I've ever tried I learned from this board. Rinsing your nasal passages with warm saline. Nothing works better for a good cleansing.

You can also use Alkalol, which is an alkaline solution. Part of my treatment for paralysed vocal cord, including knocking out the acid from acid reflux.

Kevin Krell

Double the effect? I'll look it up.

[Lambchop]

Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands!

You hear that and you think that a couple of times a day will do it. Instead, you need to wash them thoroughly every time you touch something--a person, a doorknob, a pen, the cart in the grocery store . . .

And never, never, never touch your face. You'll rub the virus into your eyes and mucous membranes.

I look upon the world as being covered with a thick layer of virus-laden snot. This viewpoint isn't difficult, because I work in an environment which plays host to nearly 4000 patients and visitors a day. The snot layer is so thick you can practically see it, so it's not so hard to imagine it.

People who want to shake your hand in this environment are treated like lepers. Nonessential handshaking is met with a recoil of horror. We try not to touch anybody who doesn't really need it, like the patients. LOL! We wash our hands before we shake, so we don't contaminate people further, and then again after, for ourselves.

The only people who get sick are those who do not practice good hand hygiene.

[talasiga]

When I studied Anglo-American herbal medicine some 35 years ago I learned that echinacea is an alterative tonic. Alterative tonics DO NOT WORK as a remedy for acute stages of illnesses. They are best employed as a long term treatment to evince a prophylactic effect.

I would not give a person in the throes of a flu or a cold echinacea with an expectation that it may have some immediate effect. IMO the best herbs during acute colds or flu are those containing volatile oils and stimulants such as cayenne, ginger and so on.

I won't give any recipes here. You can get umpteen numbers of traditional cold and flu tisanes and compounds in the many reputable herbals around about the place. I do not recall any of them having echinacea in them.

[Walden]

Awww... and I thought echinacea was just beginning to rebound from being outmoded by antibiotics. This "cure for the common cold" bit (as opposed to the uncommon cold) was supposed to revive the coneflower industry and all.

Meh... a ragweed is still a ragweed... and a goldenrod is still a goldenrod.