Does Echinacea Really Work?

Many people believe that the herb Echinacea is a very quick and natural way to treat and reduce the risk of colds and flu's. Many scientific studies have been done to see if this is a true treatment or just another old wives tale. I found such a study conducted at the University of Alberta in Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. In the experiment, a common pill was used called Echinilin, which according to Echinilin's web site can be found in all cold/cough sections in grocery stores and pharmacies. The control pill was a placebo that was made to look, taste, and smell like Echinilin, and was also distributed in the same bottle. This experiment was a double-blinded placebo controlled study. Two hundred and eighty two subjects between the ages of 18-65 that were in good health but had two or more colds the past year were chosen for the experiment. The Echinilin and placebo pills were given out at random. They were advised to take their pills at the first symptoms related to a cold. They were to consume 10 doses the first day and four doses each day after that for seven days. Daily the subjects were asked how severe there cold was from 1-10 (10 being the worst). The subjects were also examined by nurses three days of their colds. Out of the 282 subjects taking pills, 128 still got colds (59 who took the Echinilin, and 69 who took the placebo.) However, the group that took the Echinilin found their daily symptoms 23% lower than the placebo group. Throughout the experiment, the scientists noticed the response rate to treatments was higher in the Echinilin group. The results gathered from this experiment at the University of Alberta shows that early intervention with Echinacea resulted in reduced symptoms with colds. They also stated that larger studies should be conducted to test the drug on a large scale basis. I agree with those who conducted this study that the drug should be tested on a larger group of people from more than just one area. After looking at many web sites on Echinacea studies to know more about the subject, it seems as if nobody is really sure if it works for certain, but it does seem to help the severity of the cold. I do not think that personally that I would go buy Echinilin if I was trying to prevent or reduce symptoms of a cold. The numbers in the many studies I have looked at have shown that it helps the cold, but the numbers aren't large enough for me to actually believe it works. I would need to see a very large,