Echinacea, and other common cold remedies

[l3ulvl]

Has anyone ever tried Echinacea herb to fight the common cold or to boost your immune system? My friend swears by it, but I was reading online about a study that proved it was ineffective. Moments later I found a second article saying the original study was flawed because the participants didn't take the recommended dosage.

I was at the store today and meant to buy some and try for myself but it slipped my mind. Now I'm home and my throat is scratchy and I have that well known feeling of an oncoming illness.

In the past my method was to drink mixtures of Emergen-C the minute I started feeling bad. I'd drink those twice a day every day while sick. I've been feeling like it doesn't help because I end up sick the same duration whether I drink that stuff or not. Now I want to find other methods to fight the cold besides the standard OTC cold medicines.

So has anyone tried Echinacea before? Or possibly have some home remedies that work well to share?

[ESPNdeportes]

Re: Echinacea, and other common cold remedies

Heres a recent article from a pretty major american medical journal (annals of internal medicine)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21173411

CONCLUSION: Illness duration and severity were not statistically significant with echinacea compared with placebo. These results do not support the ability of this dose of the echinacea formulation to substantively change the course of the common cold.

In 2006, there was a cochrane review of the subject (it looks a pretty much all research done on a topic and does a comprehensive review)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16437427

CONCLUSIONS: Echinacea preparations tested in clinical trials differ greatly. There is some evidence that preparations based on the aerial parts of Echinacea purpurea might be effective for the early treatment of colds in adults but results are not fully consistent. Beneficial effects of other Echinacea preparations, and for preventative purposes might exist but have not been shown in independently replicated, rigorous randomized trials.

The bottom line is that great research hasn't been done, but its safe and may be worth a try

I took it a few years back and didn't notice a difference....

[l3ulvl]

Re: Echinacea, and other common cold remedies

Heres a recent article from a pretty major american medical journal (annals of internal medicine)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21173411

CONCLUSION: Illness duration and severity were not statistically significant with echinacea compared with placebo. These results do not support the ability of this dose of the echinacea formulation to substantively change the course of the common cold.

In 2006, there was a cochrane review of the subject (it looks a pretty much all research done on a topic and does a comprehensive review)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16437427

CONCLUSIONS: Echinacea preparations tested in clinical trials differ greatly. There is some evidence that preparations based on the aerial parts of Echinacea purpurea might be effective for the early treatment of colds in adults but results are not fully consistent. Beneficial effects of other Echinacea preparations, and for preventative purposes might exist but have not been shown in independently replicated, rigorous randomized trials.

The bottom line is that great research hasn't been done, but its safe and may be worth a try

I took it a few years back and didn't notice a difference....

Yeah from my online searches I've gathered pretty much the same thing. It seems like something that might work for some but not others, and research is generally incomplete. I think I'll try it just to see if I'm one of the lucky people who benefit.

Anyone have other cold remedies? I've heard lately that red chili peppers help and possibly garlic cloves, too.

[Laffer]

Re: Echinacea, and other common cold remedies

Yeah from my online searches I've gathered pretty much the same thing. It seems like something that might work for some but not others, and research is generally incomplete. I think I'll try it just to see if I'm one of the lucky people who benefit.

Anyone have other cold remedies? I've heard lately that red chili peppers help and possibly garlic cloves, too.

A clinical review recently was released in the journal 'Canadian Family Physicians' that is 5 years more recent than the Cochrane review posted earlier.

The clinical bottom lines are that Vitamin C is an effective tool against cold prevention, while echinacea and zinc lozenges are probably effective. We aren't able to evaluate ginsing and allicin b/c of inadequate and equivocal results thus far.

http://171.66.125.180/cgi/content/abstract/57/1/31

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: Echinacea, and other common cold remedies

Ill drink my p90x drink if I feel it coming on. 750% of your daily vitamin C.

I am friends with a chiropractor and he goes and gets a IV. Pumps him full of something and it works everytime.