Echinacea Could Cut Chances of Catching Common Cold

"Echinacea Could Cut Chances of Catching Common Cold", NBC 30,
Connecticut, July 20, 2007,
Link: http://www.nbc30.com/sports/13719795/detail.html

Echinacea, the most popular herbal supplement in the United States,
cuts the chances of catching the common cold by 58 percent and reduces
the duration of the common cold by 1.4 days, according to a new
University of Connecticut study to be published in the July issue of
the prominent British medical journal, The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Conducted by researchers in UConn's School of Pharmacy, the study,
known as a meta-analysis, combined the results of 14 clinical trials
involving more than 1,300 patients followed for Echinacea's effect on
preventing the common cold and more than 1,600 patients followed for
Echinacea's effect on limiting the duration of the common cold.

The new UConn findings stand in contrast to a study published recently
in the New England Journal of Medicine, which discounted Echinacea's
cold-fighting effects, the researchers report. Instead, the UConn
research bolsters a previous study that found Echinacea to be an
effective treatment for the common cold and also provides new evidence
of Echinacea's added cold prevention benefits.

Because of the size and scope of the UConn meta-analysis, which
included only randomized, placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed studies,
the researchers were able to observe effects the smaller, individual
studies, including the New England Journal of Medicine study which was
included in the UConn review, were not able to determine alone. The
UConn researchers also were able to examine Echinacea's effects with
and without the presence of additional supplements and whether
exposure to viruses occurred naturally or study subjects were
inoculated with a cold virus.

They determined:

* Echinacea reduced the incidence of contracting the common cold
whether it was taken alone or in combination with other herbal
supplements.
* Echinacea reduced the chance of catching the common cold whether
study subjects were exposed to viruses naturally or inoculated with a
particular virus as part of the study.

"The take home message from our study is that Echinacea does indeed
have powerful cold prevention and cold treatment benefits," said
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Craig Coleman, the lead
author of the study. "The significance of that finding becomes clear
when you consider Americans suffer from one billion colds annually and
spend about $1.5 billion annually for doctor's visits and another $2
billion annually on non-prescription cough and cold treatments."

# In addition to being smaller in size than the UConn meta-analysis,
the New England Journal of Medicine study that found Echinacea did not
help fight the common cold used the least common of the three species
of Echinacea and administered it at a dose more than three times lower
than recommended, Coleman explained. The study also inoculated
subjects with rhinovirus, which is one of the most common cold-
inducing viruses, but there are more than 200 viruses capable of
causing the common cold, Coleman added. Coleman and his fellow
researchers, however, stop short of endorsing Echinacea as the
standard practice for preventing and treating colds based on existing
research.

More than 800 products containing Echinacea are currently available in
different forms, containing different species of the plant, different
parts of the plant and different doses and it has yet to be determined
whether it is one, a few or the combined effects of multiple Echinacea
constituents that enhance the immune system, the researchers wrote.

Coleman said future studies are needed to control for variables such
as Echinacea species and product preparation as well as to determine
the proper dose before Echinacea can become the first line prevention
and treatment for the common cold.

UConn Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice C. Michael White and
School of Pharmacy research fellows Sachin A. Shah and Mike Rinaldi
and former research fellow Stephen Sanders also collaborated on this
research.

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