On Healthy Living

All the papers today have stories about a big, rigorous study that found that Echinacea isn’t effective at preventing of treating colds (The New York Times article can be found here, or, if you’re in a hurry, check out USA Today).

The study, published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine involved dropping rhinovirus (the stuff that causes the common cold) into people’s noses. Some were given Echinacea for a week before infection, others took it only after infection, and still others took placebos throughout.

Those who took Echinacea, either before or during the time of infection, were no less likely to develop a cold, their symptoms were no less severe, they had as much virus in their noses and their colds lasted as long as those who did nothing. The study involved 347 people secluded in hotel rooms for five days.

The National Center for Health Statistics says about 14 million people have used Echinacea, spending about $155 million on the herb last year.

Some scientists involved in the study say more research is needed, using different varieties of Echinacea and different doses. But in an editorial published in the same edition of NEJM, Dr. Wallace Sampson says the historic evidence that Echinacea was effective at treating colds is murky at best.

“Emerging as a panacea in 19th-century America, echinacea somehow became popular for the treatment of respiratory illness in Germany,” Sampson wrote. “In the early 1900s in the United States, echinacea was used as an “oral anti-infective” and a local application for wound healing; it then fell from favor after the introduction of antibiotics. Modern histories do not connect these trails. The supplement boom that started in the 1960s brought echinacea back to the United States as a cold remedy.

“Between 1950 and 1991, more than 200 clinical reports of studies of echinacea appeared. Most of these were of small, inadequately controlled European studies sponsored by industry. Researchers who were looking for confirmation performed scores of in vitro studies on entire specimens of echinacea plants and on parts and extracts of plants. Positive findings included nonspecific stimulation of immune-cell division and cytokine release, but these effects have little or no correlation with clinical results. Nevertheless, advocates claimed that echinacea spurred stimulation of the immune system.”

Whatever the studies show, millions rely on Echinacea and say that it helps them with colds and to prevent flu. One way or another, it seems to be helping people. More study is certainly needed to find out why it seems to work.

Sarah White wrote this on July 28th, 2005 and filed it under Healthy Living, Diet & Exercise, Women's Health, Men's Health, Health & Aging, Natural Remedies |