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Herbal 'Health' Products:
What Family Physicians Need to Know
Echinacea is used extensively in Germany and elsewhere to promote wound healing and
stimulate the immune system. Numerous studies of its effects have been reported, but
few are of good quality. No reports on side effects, drug interactions or toxicity
have been published.
Take Echinacea? Bless You
Popular Herb Doesn't Prevent Colds
Echinacea is one of the most popular herbal supplements on the market, hailed as a natural
way to ease the sneezes and wheezes of the common cold. But a new study shows that if
you take it to prevent colds, you might actually increase your chances of getting sick.
Herbal Remedies
- Chat With Bastyr President Dr. Joseph Pizzorno
Watch Dr. Pizzorno dance around the negative echinacea study. His book, all 1680 pages worth,
is being returned to the publisher. I think I'll wait for the movie version. I think Nick Nolte
would be just perfect to play the role of some wacko naturopathic professor who wants to reverse
the aging process.
Check out the Officers of Bastyr
and see who's there. If you can find someone who believes that you can lose weight by eating
the right foods according to your blood type, you win a prize.
NCCAM testimony
In spite of these impressive public health achievements, people still turn today to natural
products, hoping they will help mitigate infections. Among the most popular of these products
for the American consumer is Echinacea, a widely used herbal medicine. Small studies suggest
that it might lessen the severity of colds and the flu. Therefore, at NCCAM we are funding
substantive and rigorous studies to determine whether the preliminary observations about
Echinacea hold up. Nonetheless, even if Echinacea proves to mitigate simple viral respiratory
infections that almost always resolve on their own, it would be a far stretch to believe that it
could prevent or ameliorate highly virulent and disseminated bacterial or viral diseases with
high mortality rates. We must discourage any assumption that products like Echinacea may
serve in lieu of proven drugs like ciprofloxacin or doxycycline for people exposed to anthrax
bacilli.
NCCAM Clinical Trials
Pediatric studies will once and for all tell us all whether echinacea works or not. Isn't it odd that pediatric forms of this herb are marketed by mainstream pharmacies without one shred of evidence that it works, and that it does no harm?
ACSH - Drug Supplement Interaction
Supplements that tend to stimulate
the immune system, such as vitamin E, zinc, or the herb
echinacea, could interfere with the actions of drugs that are
designed to suppress the immune system, such as
corticosteroids or cyclosporine.
Medical Letter criticizes echinacea studies.
The Medical Letter on Drugs and Therapeutics is skeptical
about reports that echinacea is more effective than a placebo in decreasing the severity or duration of cold
symptoms. Its consultants believe that the "positive" studies have not been well designed and that:
There is no convincing evidence that echinacea decreases the severity or shortens the duration of
an upper respiratory infections. As with other dietary supplements, the purity and potency of these
products is unknown. Allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been reported. [Echinacea
for prevention and treatment of upper respiratory infections. Medical Letter 44:29-30, 2002]
Herbs can complicate surgical care.
Three University of Chicago anesthesiolgists have expressed
concerns that echinacea, ephedra, garlic, ginkgo, ginseng kava, St. Johns's wort, and valerian taken before or
after surgery can cause a variety of adverse reactions. The direct effects include bleeding from garlic, ginkgo,
and ginseng; cardiovascular effects from ephedra; low blood pressure from ginseng; and increased
anesthetic effects from kava and valerian. [Ang-Lee MK and others. Herbal medicine and perioperative care.
JAMA 286:208-216, 2001]
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