me and my big mouth

[waider]

Two days ago I was singing the praises of echinacea, which I've been taking for the last month or so, in fending off all the coughs and wheezes I'm normally subjected to at this time of the year.

Today I am putting off meeting up with some friends to watch movies because I feel like someone's packed my head with cotton wool, installed a dripping tap in my nose, and briskly sanded the back of my throat with low-grade sandpaper.

BLEH.

Comments

[tritone.livejournal.com]

It looks like there was a recent NEJM study that didn't show any significant benefit from echinacea for colds. Herbalists criticized previous studies for using "inferior brands" of echinacea, but this one looks like the researches did several preparations themselves.

[waider.livejournal.com]

Feh, what do those doctors know?

As it happens, this is the first time I've taken it and it did seem to be having some sort of effect, but that could just be the placebo effect.

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much what I've read. Of all the herbal remedies/treatments out there, the only one that seems to have any potential effect is zinc (not an herb, I know), if you take it lozenge form and if you take it at just the right time (i.e., when cold symptoms very first appear, which is sometimes hard to detect). The idea is that it coats your throat when you swallow and kills off the virus. It doesn't prevent colds, but can decrease their duration.

I don't know about that, but roofers use zinc-coated plates to kill moss on rooftops. You tuck them under the shingles near the peak and the next time it rains, the water washes the zinc over the moss.

[waider.livejournal.com]

As it happens, the particular echinacea product I'm taking is combined with zinc, but not in a way that seems useful from what you've said above.