More on Echinacea

More on Echinacea

This entry comes thanks to the research of Jon Barron, of Baseline
Nutritionals.

Recently, there have been studies which supposedly show that
Echinacea is not effective. Since I chose Echinacea as one of
my Super Immunity 7, I was concerned.

Take some comfort in this -- 3 of the studies used Echinacea juice
or unrefined plant matter. No herbalist uses these or claims that
they would be effective.

Other studies used their own extracts, so of course results were questionable. That's like you mixing up your own beer in a bathtub
and then complaining that it doesn't taste like Budweiser.

(And remember -- the main complaint of competent herbalists
regarding Echinacea is that commercials bottles of it don't
contain enough active ingredient to work.)

The dosage they used was 1/3 the normal recommended dose. So that's
like 1/3 of an aspirin tablet and then complaining that your head
still hurts.

The lastest "study" of Echinacea came out early this year, but
it did not perform any new experiments. It simply "reviewed"
previous studies -- which had the above flaws.

The problem is simply that no herb company has the necessary
resources to perform a truly definitive scientific study
of any supplement or herb.

There'd have to be a large number of participants across a
wide demographic span (Jon also points out that one study
used college students who generally have good immune
systems, so the boost they get from Echinacea would be
limited anyway).

It would have to follow them across a full winter's worth
of colds and flus. It'd somehow have to factor in everything
else the people might do to treat their colds and flu.

It'd also have to examine the issue of Echinacea in formulas,
because it's not as effective alone.

In the mean time, keep in mind that Echinacea does contain
echinacoside which can kill a wide variety of viruses,
bacteria, fungi and protozoa.

There are studies which show that it boosts the ability of
your macrophages to destroy germs and boosts production of
T-cells.

Now, nobody is saying that Echinacea is magic. You still need
to take care of yourself and take as many of the Super
Immunity 7 as you can if you're sick, especially with bird
flu.

However, it is a powerful weapon in your arsenal. You must
take a lot of powerful Echinacea for it to work, and what's
wrong with that?

Jon sells a high quality Echinacea formula:

high strength Echinacea

That page is a list of his many products (all of them are
excellent, by the way). You are looking for Immunify (Echinacea Plus).