Ride London newsletter claiming echinacea effective against flu and cold sores

Hey people,

Sorry this is late, but you may have noticed we've got an answer to this question and it's now on the site... http://road.cc/content/feature/235783-echinacea-effective-against-cold-a...

Cheers! 

Hey folks - just to let you know I've got in touch with a medical professional who is going to provide me with an answer to this question, we'll post it here and on our live blog tomorrow! 

Cheers,

Jack

I'm usually fairly sceptical of some of the 'natural' routes to fixing things but sometimes there's a reason why medical companies don't bother with certain things.......they can't patent it. 

Why spend money proving something you can't guarantee all the profits for or may hurt your established expensive product? 

The whole system is screwed as regards medicine. When I went to America last year I was shocked how much simple medicines cost. £0.30 for paracetemol in the UK......£8 in New York. This wasn't unusual, everything in the chemist was shockingly expensive. I'm on Levothyroxine (T4), some days if the energy levels as low I wish I could try T3 but the NHS supplier charges about £800 a packet so the doc says no way......In Greece it's about £8. Medicine eh, funny stuff and a crook's paradise. 

I suggest you put the claims to the test by taking echinacea then engaging in activities exposing you to the herpes virus.

Don't blame me if the results are visits to the clap clinic and divorce lawyers though!

I'm sorry, 'herbal medicine', "Oh, herbal medicine's been around for thousands of years!" Indeed it has, and then we tested it all, and the stuff that worked became 'medicine'. And the rest of it is just a nice bowl of soup and some potpourri, so knock yourselves out.

Dara Ó Briain

There's scant evidence for echinacea being effective. There was a shady (some conflict of interest from 2 of the researchers) double-blind study that showed some evidence that it could reduce the severity of the cold, but didn't reduce the numbers of colds caught; this involved taking it every day (ill or not). In the lab, echinacea shows anti-inflammatory properties but there's no evidence of that in humans.

Echinacea helping is fake news.

People get upset when they are told  the simple measure of washing  and drying their hands after going to the toilet but my class did an experiment at school when we grew what was on our  hands after doing or touching certain things. 

In short if you  wash your hands you decrease the number of nasty stuff on them so you are less likely to get infections from them. 

If you are nutrient deficient, then after being tested and getting the test result number  with range - which getting tested in the first place can be hard if you have some of the GPs myself, friends' and family have put up with - then you need to  supplement to be  and stay optimal.  Myself and  friends' of different ethic backgrounds due to being mostly office based have had vitamin D deficiencies but the guidelines  have been/are discriminatory especially against men. 

I tried zinc and selenium supplements for a bit, said to help boost the imune system.  

Eating well and getting lots of sleep (ahem...) can never hurt.

The main one is good hygene, was those hands properly and often, and try to not touch those mucus membranes of the eyes, nose and ears.

And get a flu jab, 8 quid at Tescos.  I spent more on decongestants and analgesics for my last cold to make it a little more bearable.

Pull me a pint of homeopathic lager for the ride.

Your link also said studies have had mixed results.
I am not aware of any harm from using it so if you think it works go for it.