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Q&A with Australian Health Practitioners
Is Echinacea a successful treatment for a cold and flu?
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Claudette Wadsworth
Homeopath, Naturopath
With prior practices in Macquarie St and Sydney CBD, Claudette knows how to deliver professional service with effective, safe and holistic results.With her understanding of … View Profile
Yes it is. A lot of people know that Echinacea is a great preventative, but what a lot of people don't realize is that it's actually quite antibacterial as well. When you get the cold or flu then definitely keep taking it as it is very beneficial. With Echinacea it really depends on the type of or species of herb. There are three actual strains of Echinacea. Echinacea Angustifolia is the most potent. Then there's Echinacea Purpurea, which is very good as well but not quite as strong. And then there's Echinacea Pallida, which actually has no therapeutic value, so make sure your product doesn't contain that. Also make sure that you have a good quality product. Echinacea tea will actually have no benefit, because the active compounds that are antibiotic and immune boosting, you can't extract them through water alone. You want something that is quite potent because there are lot of different manufacturing processes. Also, dose quite substantially. At the most one or two Echinacea tablets are sufficient but if you get a cold or flu then you obviously need to increase the dose to get on top of it, so one or two Echinacea tablets are not going to do anything.
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Dr Simon Easterbrook-Smith
Health Professional
My research interests include immunology and the mechanisms of amyloid formation. The latter has implications for people who are dealing with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease … View Profile
Claudette, with respect, the peer-reviewing medical literature is not consistent with what you have written.
Specifically:
"When you get the cold or flu then definitely keep taking it as it is very beneficial."
Almost certainly this is just placebo - see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21747102 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21173411 .
More generally, a Cochrane meta-analysis of a number of clinical trials concluded that there was no evidence that echinacea is of any benefit - see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16437427 .Report this post
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Claudette Wadsworth
Homeopath, Naturopath
With prior practices in Macquarie St and Sydney CBD, Claudette knows how to deliver professional service with effective, safe and holistic results.With her understanding of … View Profile
Please see all the peer-reviewed, double blind, placebo-controlled medical research studies listed below which conclude that Echinacea has significant anti-viral activity both as preventative and during infection.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19912623
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10976979?dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11505787?
dopt=Abstract
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/38/10/1367.full
http://www.fugh-berman.com/files/Echinacea.pdf
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/417267/
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&as_epq=Echinagard%20treatment%20shortens%20the%20course%20of%20the%20common%20cold%3A%20a%20double-blind%2C%20placebo-controlled%20clinical%20trial&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=Hoheisel&as_publication=&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=&hl=en&sciui=1&as_sdt=0%2C5Report this post
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