Cold comfort

Adults can get up to five colds, and children as many as ten, especially during the winter months. A new study on a herbal remedy offers some hope for sufferers.

ON average adults catch between two and five colds per year, especially during winter months. Children can get as many as 10. However, scientists have yet to come up with an effective cure.

This, say experts, is because colds and flu are caused by more than 200 types of respiratory virus. Prof Ronald Eccles, director of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University, recently conducted research on the herbal remedy A. Vogel Echinaforce. With a total of 755 people, this four-month study is the largest clinical trial to date with echinacea.

A significant difference in cold episodes and episode days occurred in the placebo group, compared with the group taking Echinaforce. The placebo goup had more colds requiring medication.

Echinaforce was found to be well tolerated, with the strongest benefits being experienced by study participants who suffered from stress, poor sleep, or who were prone to recurrent infections.

Professor Eccles explained that it is the inflammation of the nose and throat caused by the immune response to a cold or flu virus that causes symptoms.

Echinacea has been found to alter or modulate the way the immune system treats the virus, pushing down the immune response, in addition to having anti-viral properties.

“Perhaps the ideal therapy for common cold is modulation of the immune response,” said Professor Eccles, at a conference in London last week, organised by Bioforce, manufacturers of A. Vogel Echinaforce.

Echinaforce shortened the total number of days of a cold infection by one to one and a half days, “which is comparable with the best anti-viral medicines,” he said.

A.Vogel Echinaforce has been available to consumers in Ireland for nearly 20 years. However, the Irish Medicines Board (IMB) banned the sale of over-the-counter products containing echinacea to children under 12 last August, based on the lack of scientific data to support their use. The IMB concluded that the use of echinacea can be associated with rare side effects, mainly allergic reactions.

While adult echinacea products are not affected by this recommendation, “the ban gives herbal remedies in general a bad name because it was withdrawn so suddenly and without good reason,” said Jill Bell, president of The Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS).

“We are pleased with the results of the Cardiff study and we view echinacea as a safe and effective herb,” commented Susie Quigley, general secretary of the Irish Register of Herbalists (IRH).

“The restrictions on using echinacea in children under the age of 12 applies only to over-the-counter products, so herbalists can continue to dispense it.”