Echinacea

I use echinacea when I have colds. I use the tea form of it as I feel it enters my system quicker, which is more effective (and I like the taste and steam). I don't use it as a preventative measure because with or without it I still end up with colds all through the winter. I attribute that to being cooped up in close quarters with my 6 person family and my coworkers. Colds are just bound to happen. When I use it I do seem to recover quicker than when I don't use it. You gave a lot of good info about the herb, but I always would rather read something that someone wrote themself than something that was copied and pasted from some outside source, which this seems to have been. But, I could be mistaken.

Echinacea may save you some sick days when colds strike, but it doesn't seem to prevent them. Researchers have gotten mixed results using echinacea to treat colds. In some studies the herb appears to work quite well, in others not at all. When researchers have tried using echinacea to prevent colds, however, they've generally been disappointed. For example, in one recent study, reported in the June 2000 issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, researchers gave 117 people either echinacea or a placebo for two weeks, then exposed them to cold viruses. Those who took the echinacea were just as likely to develop a cold as those who took a placebo. Other research suggests that taking echinacea for too long might actually weaken your resistance to cold viruses. In fact, Commission E says that you shouldn't take echinacea for longer than eight days in a row. Echinacea, the herbal remedy used by millions of Americans for fighting the common cold, does not ward off runny noses, sore throats or headaches, nor does it help speed recovery from cold symptoms, according to the results of a major clinical study released today. "We find no evidence that it actually does anything to common cold symptoms," said Dr. Ronald Turner, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and lead author of the study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. "If that's the reason you're buying it, then you're wasting your money." The study included 437 people who volunteered to have cold viruses dripped into their noses. Some took echinacea for a week beforehand, while others got a placebo. Others swallowed echinacea or a placebo at the time they were infected. Then the subjects, mostly college students, were secluded in hotel rooms for five days while scientists examined them for symptoms and took nasal washings to look for the virus and for an immune system protein, interleukin-8, which some had hypothesized was stimulated by echinacea, enabling the herb to stop colds. But the investigators found that those who took echinacea fared no differently from those who took a placebo -- they were just as likely to get a cold, their symptoms were just as severe, they had just as much virus in their nasal secretions, and they made no more interleukin-8. While some echinacea researchers say more study is needed, Dr. Stephen Straus, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which sponsored the new study, says he, for one, is satisfied that echinacea is not an effective cold remedy. "This paper says it will not pre-empt a common cold, and it stands on top of prior studies saying it doesn't treat an established cold," Straus said. "We've got to stop attributing any efficacy to echinacea," he added.

My husband takes it, and says it helps him. It doesn't help me at all. But, it is known that it does help most people if you start it in time.

I've been taking Echinacea for years. I have fibromyalgia so I have a weakened immune system because I don't get into Stage IV restorative sleep. Anytime I feel the first signs of a cold - sore throat, swollen glands, itchy watery eyes - I take Echinacea and it almost always wards it off. Taking the tea works the best. I will feel all stuffed up and have an itchy nose and watery eyes and then have an Echinacea tea. The next day I will feel fine. I had to start giving it to my daughter when she was a toddler (liquid children's formula) because she was always getting sick. And when she got a cold the mucous build-up would cause her to throw up. She was a colicky baby so I pretty much had enough of her throwing up. I put a few drops of Echinacea in her bottle at bedtime and she was not sick the whole time I did that. When I ran out of it I didn't get anymore and she was sick within a week. Now adays people are on other kicks like Cold FX. My sister ranted at me when I told her I was feeling under the weather and boosting my system with Echinacea and Vitamin C. She said "No, no, no, no. Take Cold FX. It really works." I admit that the cold I did get went away quicker, but I haven't found it much help in preventing colds. I tend to go back to the Echinacea. It works for me, my husband and my kids.

I have taken Echinacea quite often when I have been ill with respiratory ailments such as a cold or flu like symptoms. I have also heard that as you relay in this post that it is important to take it more intermittently as not to build up an immunity to its effectiveness.

Echinacea seems to come in several different forms. What is the most effective and what is the optimum dose.???I think someone said it could be used externally for skin lesions - is this correct?

Echinacea is great and this discussion just reminded me how great. Several years ago the librarian at one of the schools I worked at told me about it and when I started taking it saw a huge difference... I have not been taking it for maybe a year or so and just realized, duh I've been sick a lot and for long periods this year. I am going out today and get some, thanks dear for this reminder.

Because i don't sleep well, i take echnicacea and my dr told me to take it one week on then skip a week, and so on i don't think it helped me all that much as my immune system was pretty battered over the winter (i had a viral infection for 6 weeks!!) i am now feeling better after having a cold last week...there are many suppliments that you can take but i spose the best one is eating a healthy diet (which i know i don't!!)

hi kathy.. wow.. echinacea? what is that.. never heard of it in my country.. let's see.. it's a herb use to boost our antibody and immune system? first of all.. i need to know where can i get this herb.. you said that is it one of the best known and most documented dietary supplements on the market? is it in pill form or powder form? i think i'm going to check with pharmacist on this herb.. thanks for the info =) .. it helps alot here as i always catch cold during rainy days... will it help to counter the hot weather here? i always get fever too =P