Echinacea
Dr. Bruce Barrett, associate professor of family medicine at UW-Madison, has studied Echinacea and its effectiveness for years. According to Barrett, Echinacea is a prairie flower that was used by Native Americans as a medicinal plant and the knowledge was transferred to Europeans and doctors.
While Echinacea is used for other things, Barrett said people usually take it as an immuno-stimulant used to fight infectious disease.
According to Barrett, studies on the plant have had mixed results, providing limited evidence to suggest that Echinacea actually prevents the common cold.
All prevention studies lined up in the same direction; incidence of cold was lower in the Echinacea group in all of them. But it was only low enough to be statistically significant in two of them,"" he said.
Barrett also cited the placebo effect as a possible reason for the correlation between Echinacea and prevention.
Nikolaus said the results of Echinacea studies are contradictory because of the plant is experimented with during a cold, not before or at the beginning.
""Echinacea is most effective when taken at the immediate onset of a cold...it is not as effective on older colds, which is where the controversy comes in,"" she said.
Astragalus and Elderberry
According to Nikolaus, astragalus comes from the Chinese tradition and acts as an immuno-stimulant. She said it is especially helpful for people with reccurring colds and should be taken for months to get the immune system back up to a healthy level. Nikolaus said that astragalus is one of the safest herbs and can even be given to children.
According to Mardones, astragalus is better for long-term use than Echinacea is because it helps boost white blood cell counts in the body. White blood cells activate the immune response.
Astragalus is most commonly taken as a supplement.
Unlike Echinacea and Astragalus, Elderberry is an actual anti-viral that coats the outside of the virus and prevents it from reproducing in the immune system. Mardones said Elderberry can be taken at any time, for prevention or to help fight an already-existing cold.
Elderberry can be taken as a supplement, in tea, tinctures or capsules.
