OT: Echinacea fails to improve common cold

According to a new study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, echinacea, the popular herbal remedy, was no better than placebo in helping the symptoms of the common cold.

In the study, 719 adult Wisconsin residents with early signs of a cold were assigned to receive placebo, nothing at all, or echinacea over a 5 day treatment course.

Sadly, the echinacea pills were not measurably better than placebo at speeding recovery time or reducing the severity of runny nose, sore throat, cough, and other symptoms.

So, if echinacea has effects on a cold, its effects are mild. There were no adverse effects reported in the study due to echinacea treatment.

Echinacea fans are disputing the findings. More details here at health.com:(link)