Using Echinacea to Treat Colds

Despite the miraculous advances of modern medicine in recent years to treat the common cold, doctors still are powerless to prevent or cure it. But several studies indicate that echinacea, an herb, may help us to ward off this frequent illness. Their results indicate that using echinacea to treat colds can be an effective plan.

Studies of Echinacea

So many studies have been conducted on echinacea that it is difficult to make heads or tails out of them. The main reason is that many different preparations and doses were used. The three different species of echinacea were used in different studies, sometimes in combination. Some studies involved people with naturally acquired colds, while other studies artificially induced the colds.

Finally, it is notoriously difficult to study colds because the symptoms are mimicked by many other conditions (including noninfectious allergies), and there is no simple, inexpensive, widely used test to definitively determine if someone has a viral cold or not.

Despite these problems, several research groups have tried to make sense of the echinacea studies using a process called metanalysis. This is a mathematical method that treats all the data of different studies as if the information were part of one large study.

All the groups note that the results of the research are inconsistent, but they do say that various preparations of echinacea have been shown to reduce the risk of catching a cold, to shorten the time people stay sick once infected, and to produce milder symptoms when people do get sick.

For example, one metanalysis conducted by Swiss researchers found that of the three studies that involved people taking standardized extracts of the flowering tops of Echinacea purpurea, the risk of developing a natural cold was about one-half that of people given a placebo (dummy pill). A group of German researchers concluded that extracts of Echinacea purpurea flowering tops are also generally more useful than placebo to reduce duration and severity of symptoms if started soon after a cold beings.

You may have heard about several large studies published in the past few years that came to negative conclusions about the efficacy of echinacea. However, almost all of these studies had serious flaws, which calls into question their validity.

For example, a large study (437 adults participated) of three tinctures of Echinacea angustifolia root was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005. This study found that none of the extracts studied was effective for preventing or treating experimentally induced colds. However, the doses used (1.5 milliliters, or a quarter-teaspoon, three times per day) were dramatically lower than what almost any clinician would ever recommend using.

A similar problem of underdosing (3.75 to 5 milliliters, or three-quarters to one teaspoon, twice per day) was the flaw in a large study of Echinacea purpurea flower juice that found no effects in treating symptoms of natural colds in 407 children (this study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2004). Still, in this same group of children, taking these low doses did show a moderate ability to prevent them from catching colds.

Using Echinacea to Treat Colds

Most herbalists advise taking echinacea in high doses the minute you feel a cold coming on, so your body can ward off the illness before symptoms get a foothold. If you have a sore throat, it is particularly useful to gargle echinacea tincture or juice mixed with water. This quickly reduces pain due to an anesthetic effect.

There's a myth that echinacea loses its effectiveness when used continually. There's no evidence to support this. Indeed, clinical evidence supports echinacea's effectiveness in long-term use.

Even if you do catch a cold, echinacea may help you to shake it off sooner than you otherwise might. During a period of infection, when the body is running low on resources, using echinacea to treat colds has been found to have a strong and direct force on the body's ability to speed healing. In other words, when you're in bed with a cold, your body can use all the help it can get.

Getting What You Pay For

When purchasing echinacea, stick to brand names you trust. Otherwise, you can't always be certain that what you're buying is a pharmaceutical grade of echinacea -- or even if the product contains any echinacea at all.

How can you tell? Good-quality echinacea products produce a harmless tingling sensation on the tongue. (To assess a capsule, break one open and taste the powder.) Your best chance of getting the right amount of echinacea lies in choosing products from well-established suppliers.

Tackling the Flu

The same general results hold true for using echinacea to treat the flu. In one study conducted in Germany, liquid echinacea extract was shown to help ease the symptoms of influenza and speed recovery.

Another study, this one reported in 1978, found that echinacea root was significantly effective in attacking influenza viruses. Another clinical study, in 1992, found that volunteers who took echinacea showed marked resistance to flu viruses.

And volunteers who took echinacea, but who still came down with the flu, exhibited far fewer symptoms than untreated patients.

Every year, millions of people suffer from colds. Fortunately, by following the home remedies and natural treatment options outlined in this article, you can make your bouts with the sniffles more tolerable.

For more information on preventing and treating colds and flu, try the following links:

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Timothy Gower is a freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in many publications, including Reader's Digest, Prevention, Men's Health, Better Homes and Gardens, The New York Times, and The Los Angeles Times. The author of four books, Gower is also a contributing editor for Health magazine.

Alice Lesch Kelly is a health writer based in Boston. Her work has been published in magazines such as Shape, Fit Pregnancy, Woman's Day, Reader's Digest, Eating Well, and Health. She is the co-author of three books on women's health.

Linnea Lundgren has more than 12 years experience researching, writing, and editing for newspapers and magazines. She is the author of four books, including Living Well With Allergies.

Michele Price Mann is a freelance writer who has written for such publications as Weight Watchers and Southern Living magazines. Formerly assistant health and fitness editor at Cooking Light magazine, her professional passion is learning and writing about health.

ABOUT THE CONSULTANTS:

Ivan Oransky, M.D., is the deputy editor of The Scientist. He is author or co-author of four books, including The Common Symptom Answer Guide, and has written for publications including the Boston Globe, The Lancet, and USA Today. He holds appointments as a clinical assistant professor of medicine and as adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

David J. Hufford, Ph.D., is university professor and chair of the Medical Humanities Department at Pennsylvania State University's College of Medicine. He also is a professor in the departments of Neural and Behavioral Sciences and Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Hufford serves on the editorial boards of several journals, including Alternative Therapies in Health & Medicine and Explore.

This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. Neither the Editors of Consumer Guide (R), Publications International, Ltd., the author nor publisher take responsibility for any possible consequences from any treatment, procedure, exercise, dietary modification, action or application of medication which results from reading or following the information contained in this information. The publication of this information does not constitute the practice of medicine, and this information does not replace the advice of your physician or other health care provider. Before undertaking any course of treatment, the reader must seek the advice of their physician or other health care provider.