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)

Herbal Supplements and Surgery - Safe or not?

Herbal supplements are everywhere. And cosmetic surgery patients love them - in a recent survey, 55% of cosmetic surgery patients surveyed took 2 or more supplements, compared to only 24% in the general population. The most commonly used supplements in the survey were: chondroitin, ephedra, echinacea and glucosamine.

Some supplements have some serious side effects that may be problematic, if you are having general anesthesia and surgery.

Here's a quick guide to which supplements should be stopped, and the reasons why. The general recommendation is to stop these supplements two weeks before surgery.

These supplements can cause bleeding problems:
Chondroitin / Glucosamine --- can also cause low blood sugar
Fish Oil
Garlic
Ginger
Gingko
Ginseng --- can also cause low blood pressure under anesthesia
Saw Palmetto
Vitamin E

These supplements affect drug metabolism and can cause excessive sedation:
Echinacea
Goldenseal --- can also cause photosensitivity reactions from laser light
Kava
St. John's Wort --- can also cause low blood pressure under anesthesia
Valerian

Ephedra ("Ma-Huang") - can cause cardiac arrhythmias, stroke, heart attack, low blood pressure under anesthesia


Since the whole idea of cosmetic surgery is to have a wonderful outcome and to minimize the risk of complications, the problems these seemingly-innocent supplements can cause are just not worth it. Please avoid them - and have a smooth recovery!