Herbal remedy really does help ward off a cold

A breakthrough in the battle to defeat the common cold is announced by experts today.

A cheap herbal remedy has been found to slash the risk of catching the cold virus by more than half. Even people who are already ill can benefit.

The study found that the remedy could also reduce the duration of a cold by between one and four days.

Echinacea, the purple coneflower, offers a simple way of boosting the immune system – and is already widely available and cheap, in chemists and health stores.

It is thought to increase the production of cells that fight infection.

The average adult suffers  between two and five colds each year and Britons spend more than £450million a year on cold and flu remedies.

Scientists welcomed news of the study yesterday, and said the findings are significant.

Professor Ronald Eccles, of Cardiff University’s  Common Cold Centre, said: “Harnessing the power of our own immune system to fight common infections with herbal medicines such as echinacea is now given more validity with this interesting scientific evaluation of past clinical trials.”

For centuries, practitioners of herbal medicine have believed that echinacea can purify the blood and ward off common infections.

But many doctors remained sceptical. A series of studies  examining whether echinacea really did work produced conflicting results. Now, a review of these trials suggests that, overall, it works.

The review, published in the The Lancet Infectious Diseas-es journal, looked at 14 studies of echinacea and the common cold. In general, the studies suggested that taking the herb reduces the risk of catching a cold by 58 per cent.

Volunteers who took the herb reduced their risk of catching a cold ‘“naturally” by 65 per cent. Meanwhile, a trial in which patients were deliberately infected with one strain of the cold virus – rhinovirus – saw their risk of falling ill drop by 35 per cent.

Dr Craig Coleman, of Connecticut University’s school of pharmacy, who led the review, called the findings  “interesting” – but said larger studies were still needed.

Sales of the echinacea remedy reached £30million last year – up by 30 per cent on 2005.

Professor Ron Cutler, at the University of East London, said: “People with impaired immune function may benefit from taking echinacea during winter months.  But healthy people do not require long-term preventative use.”

_{(Source Victoria Fletcher, Daily Express June 25 2007)}