Echinacea out in the cold.Echinacea echinacea (ĕk'ənā`shēə), popular herbal remedy, or botanical, believed to benefit the immune system. It is used especially to alleviate common colds and the flu, but several controlled studies using it as a cold medicine have had no impact on the risk of getting a cold or on the severity or duration of colds in the largest, most carefully controlled study done to date. Researchers gave roughly 400 healthy young volunteers either a placebo or one of three extracts of Echinacea angustifolia Echinacea angustifolia (Narrow-leaved purple coneflower, blacksamson echinacea) Is a herbaceous plant species in Asteraceae. The Plants grow 40 to 70 cm tall with spindal shaped tap-root like roots that are often branhced. root either seven days before or soon after a cold virus was inserted into their noses. Echinacea had no effect on who got a cold or how bad or how long the symptoms lasted. It also didn't affect how much their nasal nasal /na·sal/ (na´zil) pertaining to the nose. na·sal adj. Of, in, or relating to the nose. nasal pertaining to the nose. secretions weighed or how much virus or markers of the body's inflammatory response the secretions contained (both are signs that the body is fighting off a cold). What to do: It's always possible that a different Echinacea root or extract might fight colds. Just don't bet your Kleenex on it. New England Journal of Medicine The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. 353: 337,341, 2005. |
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