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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:17 pm Post Subject: Echinacea 'can prevent a cold'
Quote:
Taking the herbal remedy echinacea can more than halve the risk of catching a common cold, US researchers say.
They found it decreased the odds of developing a cold by 58% and the duration of colds by a day-and-a-half.
The results in The Lancet Infectious Diseases conflict with other studies that show no beneficial effect.
Experts believe echinacea, a collection of nine related plant species indigenous to North America, may work by boosting the body's immune system.
'Marked effects'
Researchers, led by Dr Craig Coleman from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy, combined the results of 14 different studies on Echinacea's anti-cold properties.
In one of the 14 studies the researchers reviewed, echinacea was taken alongside vitamin C. This combination reduced cold incidence by 86%.
When echinacea was used alone it reduced cold incidence by 65%.
Even when patients were directly inoculated with a rhinovirus - the most common cold-causing virus - echinacea reduced cold incidence by 35%.
The researchers' report said: "With over 200 viruses capable of causing the common cold, echinacea could have modest effect against rhinovirus but marked effects against other viruses."
Popular product
They found that more than 800 products containing echinacea were available, and that differing parts of the plant - flower, stem and root - were used in different products.
They said more work was needed to check the safety of these different formulations.
Professor Ron Cutler, of the University of East London, said: "The true benefits, and more importantly, how the agents work remains unclear and further better-controlled actual clinical trials still have to be carried out.
"Echinacea may reduce the duration of illness and decreases the severity of cough, headache, and nasal congestion. "
He said people with impaired immune function might benefit from taking echinacea during the winter months to prevent colds and flu, but that healthy people did not require long-term preventative use.
"There has also been the suggestion in the past that continuous treatment with echinacea is not recommended - the benefits may only be effective for one or two weeks and after taking the agent for this time people should stop and give the immune system a week without the agent."
Professor Ronald Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at the University of Cardiff, said the work was "a significant step in our battle against the common cold".
"Harnessing the power of our own immune system to fight common infections with herbal medicines such as echinacea is now given more validity with this interesting scientific evaluation of past clinical trials," he added.
You can get echinacea teabags from most supermarkets. The one I buy is Healtheries echinacea tea with lemon and vitamin C. 20 bags for about 4 bucks. Caffeine free. 44% of the bags contents is echinacea angustifolia which is good. For a great tonic add a chai teabag as well, you cant go wrong. Cheers :grey:
Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 4:18 pm Post Subject: sadly
our access to plants like echinacea could be severely restricted soon if this tga regulations are passed into law, which will be good timing for the global crime syndicates birdflu pandemic which im hoping will flop, just like SARS did...
im hoping that SARS wasnt just a test run for testing public reaction...
AIDS was very successfull but it has not significantly affected population levels world wide, but it has provided a massive income and profits for the GCS (NWO)..
As scientists have discovered from taking dna from a corpse that died from the 'spanish flu', the spanish flu was a birdflu also.. what many dont know is that it wasnt a spanish flu at all, it didnt origonate in spain, in fact the spanish flu was the result of multiple vaccines used just after the war when soldiers returned from battle and had already been given a host of experimental vaccines and were getting sick, the powers that be at the time decided to use all the remaining vaccines on the returning soldiers families and the general public... you can read more on this from a book that a nurse back then wrote which is online here:
they have an awesome range, including echinacea , both purpuria and angustifolia seeds , plus a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge base , and their philosophy is firmly centred on empowering people with resources that will meet survival needs in the times to come . they include some legal mental health enhancing herbs also .
